Podcasts about until christ

"The Arrival of Peace" Isaiah 9:6; Luke 2:13-14Advent Series - Preparing for the Lord part 2 of 5Pastor Nate ClarkeDecember 8, 2024You and your family are invited to celebrate Christmas with us at our Candlelight Services on Christmas Eve, December 24 at 3:00 and 4:30 PM.Learn about this year's Kingdom Builder's project: https://www.oasischurch.online/kingdom-buildersHow should Christians think about voting and politics? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak82aD16r04NEW KIDS SPACE NOW OPEN!We have expanded with 3x more space for the babies, kids, and youth in your family.https://www.instagram.com/oasischurchva/reel/C8FqHIipr3u/OUR NEW VISION STATEMENT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0WFhtL7h3ISERMON NOTES:- Isaiah 9:6- Luke 2:13-14- The Arrival of Peace- Peace: well-being, wholeness, flourishing. The absence of conflict or turmoil.- Conflict with people- Conflict with nature- Conflict with ourselves- Conflict with ourselves. Genesis 3:7-8, 11- Conflict with nature. Genesis 3:16-17- Conflict with people. Genesis 3:12- The origins of all conflict is our conflict with God.- Ephesians 2:13-14- Peace with God allows you to work towards peace with others, nature, and yourself- Romans 12:18- Matthew 5:9- Leviticus 26:6- John 14:27- Philippians 4:6-7- Colossians 3:15- Until Christ returns, we won't know our final peace.- Matthew 10:34-36- Matthew 24:6-8- We receive the Prince of Peace to make us right with God. By His Spirit, we work for peace in our lives and in the world. And in faith we await for God's finished peace when He returns. - Isaiah 55:12-13- Isaiah 65:25- Isaiah 48:18- Isaiah 66:12Oasis Church exists to Worship God, Equip the believers, and Reach the lost.We are led by Pastor Nate Clarke and are located in Richmond, VA.Stay Connected:Website: https://oasischurch.online Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oasischurchva/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OasisChurchRVA/

As election season approaches, it's important to reflect on how we should engage with politics. Ray, E.Z., Mark, and Oscar remind us that politicians are human and flawed, and while we may support certain candidates, it's essential to remember a believer's ultimate citizenship is in heaven. Israel was instructed to contribute to society while in exile but also warned not to assimilate with the culture. Likewise, we should engage but avoid political idolatry, as our hope lies in God's kingdom, not in earthly leaders.When we place more hope in a political candidate than in God, we risk idolatry. No political agenda can achieve what Christ secured on the cross. While America is imperfect, the freedom to practice and share our faith without fear is a blessing; however when patriotism becomes blind to flaws, it turns into an idol. So, how do Christians engage in politics without falling into idolatry? The key is not to let politics become our savior or source of joy. Political ideologies often mirror eschatological themes—creation, fall, redemption—but they can conflict with God's narrative. When we elevate ideologies above our faith, they become idols. Civil conversations, even with those who disagree, help us maintain peace and avoid the divisiveness that leads to idolatry.God establishes governing authorities, and while rebellion can be justified under certain circumstances our general posture should be one of submission. The American spirit often leans toward rebellion, but scripture calls for a heart of submission and lament, not pride. True rebellion is only warranted when it's a matter of following God's commands. Christians are called to be peacemakers in a world of anger and division. Until Christ returns, we are to occupy this world without becoming overly attached to it. We can vote, but the election results are in God's hands. Trust in His plan and focus on walking with the Lord, knowing He's in control. While it's natural to feel upset by outcomes, do not let them shake your faith. Watch your words, and remember that political identities should never overshadow your identity as a child of God.Christians are called to participate in politics but with a higher allegiance to the kingdom of God. Involvement is important, but so is checking the order of our love and ensuring that the gospel, not an agenda, guides us. We should vote, teach our children about politics, and even run for office, but always keep our ultimate focus on God's kingdom.Send us a text Thanks for listening! If you've been helped by this podcast, we'd be grateful if you'd consider subscribing, sharing, and leaving us a comment and 5-star rating! Visit the Living Waters website to learn more and to access helpful resources!You can find helpful counseling resources at biblicalcounseling.com.Check out The Evidence Study Bible and the Basic Training Course.You can connect with us at podcast@livingwaters.com. We're thankful for your input!Learn more about the hosts of this podcast.Ray ComfortEmeal (“E.Z.”) ZwayneMark SpenceOscar Navarro

Dallas Willard (1935-2013) was an influential philosopher and beloved author and speaker on Christian spiritual formation. He had the unique gift of being able to speak eloquently to academic and popular audiences, and it's fascinating to observe the ways his philosophical thought pervades and influences his spiritual writings—and vice versa.In this episode, Steve Porter (Senior Research Fellow and Executive Director of the Martin Institute, Westmont College / Affiliate Professor of Spiritual Formation at Biola University) joins Evan Rosa to explore the key concepts and ideas that appear throughout Dallas Willard's philosophical and spiritual writings, including: epistemological realism; a relational view of knowledge; how knowledge makes love possible; phenomenology and how the mind experiences, represents, and comes into contact with reality; how the human mind can approach the reality of God with a love for the truth; moral psychology; and Dallas's concerns about the recent resistance, loss, and disappearance of moral knowledge.About Dallas WillardDallas Willard (1935-2013) was a philosopher, minister and beloved author and speaker on Christian philosophy and spiritual formation. For a full biography, visit Dallas Willard Ministries online.About Steve PorterDr. Steve Porter is Senior Research Fellow and Executive Director of the Martin Institute for Christianity & Culture at Westmont College, and an affiliate Professor of Theology and Spiritual Formation at the Institute for Spiritual Formation and Rosemead School of Psychology (Biola University). Steve received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Southern California and M.Phil. in philosophical theology at the University of Oxford.Steve teaches and writes in Christian spiritual formation, the doctrine of sanctification, the integration of psychology and theology, and philosophical theology. He co-edited Until Christ is Formed in You: Dallas Willard and Spiritual Formation, Psychology and Spiritual Formation in Dialogue, and Dallas's final academic book: The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge. He is the author of Restoring the Foundations of Epistemic Justification: A Direct Realist and Conceptualist Theory of Foundationalism, and co-editor of Christian Scholarship in the 21st Century: Prospects and Perils. In addition to various book chapters, he has contributed articles to the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, Philosophia Christi, Faith and Philosophy, Journal of Psychology and Theology, Themelios, Christian Scholar's Review, etc. Steve and his wife Alicia live with their son Luke and daughter Siena in Long Beach, CA.Show NotesThe Martin Institute for Christianity & Culture at Westmont CollegeDallas Willard Ministries (Free Online Resources)Dallas Willard, The Spirit of DisciplinesWillard as both spiritual formation teacher/pastor and intellectual/philosopherGary Moon, Becoming Dallas WillardDallas Willard MinistriesConversatio DivinaPhenomenology—“One of the principles of phenomenology is you want to kind of help others come to see what you've seen.”Willard “presenting himself to God” while teaching“The kingdom of God was in the room.”The importance of finding your own way into your spiritual practicesAn ontology of knowing and epistemological realism: “We can come to know things the way they are.”What does it mean to say that being precedes knowledge or that metaphysics precedes epistemology? What does that imply for spiritutal formation?What is real?Operating on accurate information about realityDallas Willard on Husserl: “What is most intriguing in Husserl's thought to me, the always hopeful realist, is the way he works out a theory of the substance and nature of consciousness and knowledge, which allows that knowledge to grasp a world that it does not make.”The Cambridge Companion to HusserlThe philosophical tradition of “saving the appearances”Mind-world relationshipThe affinity between concepts and their objectsDallas Willard on concepts and objects: “On my view, thoughts and their concepts do not modify the objects which make up reality. They merely match up or fail to match up with them in a certain way. Thus, there would be a way things are, and the realism there would be vindicated along with the possibility at least of a God's eye view.”Lying as a disconnection from the truth and therefore from the worldAgency in our choice to know God and pursue knowing GodThe role of sincerity and honesty in shared realityRichard Rorty, “Solidarity or Objectivity”: “breaking free of the shackles of objectivity”Dallas Willard in “Where Is Moral Knowledge?”: “One way of characterizing the condition of North American society at present is to say that moral knowledge, knowledge of good and evil, of what is morally admirable and despicable, right and wrong, is no longer available in our world to people generally. It has disappeared as a reliable resource for living.”Knowledge used to justify violence versus knowledge used to counter injusticeMoral relativism vs moral absolutism—which is the problem today?Moral absolutism is often not rooted in knowledge, but a feeling of certaintyDallas Willard, *The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge* (also available here)Social causes for moral knowledge having disappeared from public lifeMoral knowledge provides the place to stand for justiceWhat is it to be a good person?Emmanuel Levinas and the face of the otherDallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy, “The life and words that Jesus brought into the world came in the form of information and reality.”Becoming a student of JesusWillard's four fundamental questions: What is real? What is the good life? Who is the good person? How does one become good?Dallas Willard on how to understand Jesus's words: “It is the failure to understand Jesus and his words as reality and vital information about life. That explains why today we do not routinely teach those who profess allegiance to him, how to do what he said was best. We lead them to profess allegiance to him, or we expect them to, and we leave them there devoting our remaining efforts to attracting them to this or that.”The contemporary issue of exchanging becoming more like Jesus for other ways of life.The real cost of changing one's lifeFrederica Matthewes Green: “Everyone wants transformation, but no one likes to change.”“The good news of Jesus is the availability of the Kingdom of God.”Sociologist Max Picard, *The Flight From God* and philosopher Charles Taylor on “the buffered self.”Dallas Willard on taking Jesus seriously as a reliable path to growth“In many ways, I believe that we are at a turning point among the people of Christ today, one way of describing that turning point is that people are increasingly serious about living the life that Jesus gives to us. And not just having services, words, and rituals. But a life that is full of the goodness and power of Christ. There is a way of doing that. There is knowledge of spiritual growth and of spiritual life that can be taught and practiced. Spiritual growth is not like lightning that hits for no reason you can think of. Many of us come out of a tradition of religion that is revivalistic and experiential. But often the mixture of theological understanding and history that has come down to us has presented spiritual growth as if somehow it were not a thing that you could have understanding of. That you could know, that you could teach, that made sense. And so, we have often slipped into a kind of practical mysticism. The idea that if we just keep doing certain things, then maybe something will happen. We have not had an understanding of a reliable process of growth.”Jesus on “The Cure for Anxiety”Production NotesThis podcast featured Steve PorterEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Alexa Rollow & Kacie BarrettA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

A new MP3 sermon from Rockport Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Until Christ is Formed in You Subtitle: Galatians: Gospel Freedom Speaker: Scott Lee Broadcaster: Rockport Baptist Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 7/14/2024 Bible: Galatians 4:19; Colossians 3:9-10 Length: 45 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Rockport Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Until Christ is Formed in You Subtitle: Galatians: Gospel Freedom Speaker: Scott Lee Broadcaster: Rockport Baptist Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 7/14/2024 Bible: Galatians 4:19; Colossians 3:9-10 Length: 45 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Rockport Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Until Christ is Formed in You Subtitle: Galatians: Gospel Freedom Speaker: Scott Lee Broadcaster: Rockport Baptist Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 7/14/2024 Bible: Galatians 4:19; Colossians 3:9-10 Length: 45 min.

LEANING ON OUR OWN understanding is a recipe for disaster. We continue with the theme of the importance of wisdom and willingness to receive correction, summarized in this verse: There is a way that seems right to a man,but its end is the way to death. (Prov. 14:12, ESV) We also discuss grief and its place in the human experience. Until Christ returns, pain will be a part of our journey. It's a consequence of our fallen world, but it also helps us grow and truly appreciate joy. Sharon's niece, Sarah Sachleben, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer, and the medical bills are piling up. If you are led to help, please go to GilbertHouse.org/hopeforsarah. Derek's presentations from last weekend at His Call Ministries: The Gates of HellA Tunnel to HellThe Book of Enoch and the Valley of the Shadow of DeathGates in SpaceSummoning the Dragon (AI and the Gates of Hell)Solidarity With Israel Follow us! • X: @gilberthouse_tv | @sharonkgilbert | @derekgilbert• Telegram: t.me/gilberthouse• YouTube: @GilbertHouse | @UnravelingRevelation• Facebook.com/GilbertHouseFellowship Thank you for making our Build Barn Better project a reality! Our 1,200 square pole barn now has HVAC, a new floor, windows, ceiling fans, upgraded electric service, and insulation. We're now producing programs out there. Thank you for your support! If you are so led, you can help out at GilbertHouse.org/donate. Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs Unraveling Revelation and A View from the Bunker, and the podcast that started this journey in 2005, P.I.D. Radio. Best of all, it bypasses the gatekeepers of Big Tech! The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/. Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site! Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study. Take advantage of our monthly specials! NEW DATES FOR OUR NEXT TOUR OF ISRAEL! Our 2025 tour features special guests Timothy Alberino, Dr. Judd Burton, and Doug Van Dorn! We will tour the Holy Land March 25–April 3, 2025, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.gilberthouse.org/travel. Our favorite Bible study tools! Check the links in the right-hand column at www.GilbertHouse.org.

LEANING ON OUR OWN understanding is a recipe for disaster.We continue with the theme of the importance of wisdom and willingness to receive correction, summarized in this verse:There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Prov. 14:12, ESV)We also discuss grief and its place in the human experience. Until Christ returns, pain will be a part of our journey. It's a consequence of our fallen world, but it also helps us grow and truly appreciate joy.Sharon's niece, Sarah Sachleben, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer, and the medical bills are piling up. If you are led to help, please go to GilbertHouse.org/hopeforsarah. 

Until Christ is Formed in You

Have you ever heard the phrase “once for all” of “once and for all”? It means as a settled matter, finally, permanently, as in We've settled that question once and for all. This expression is in effect an abbreviation for “one time and for all time.” Until Christ, animal sacrifices took place “year after year” on the Day of Atonement, reminding the people of their guilt. In the new covenant between God and His people, God promised that He would no longer remember our sins because of Christ's once for all sacrifice. In other words Christ's sacrifice was final...permanent. Let's talk about it. Thanks for listening. Blessings and love in Christ! To find out more about our church please go to www.whccnb.org.

The first five minutes were lost in the recording. The notes are below: Today, the 5th Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide, a two-week period commemorating Jesus' suffering and death, leading us to Holy Week. Today is also the Feast Day of St. Patrick, that 5th Century British Saint who became the Apostle of Ireland. Though in America, St. Patrick's Day has become a celebration of Irish culture, the Church commemorates the eternal significance of his life. Let's turn our attention to Passiontide: John, 12:20-33. The setting is the Feast of Passover. A group of Greeks attending requested to see Jesus. Because Philip (Filippos) is a very Greek name, perhaps they had some prior conversations. At any rate, Philip needs to check out the request with Andrew, another Greek name (Andreas). The bulk of Jesus' disciples were from Galilee, called Galilee of the Gentiles. At any rate, they decide to let Jesus know Greeks have requested an audience with him. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Something shifts when Jesus hears that some Greeks want to see him. It signals that his hour has come. Earlier in John's Gospel, at the Wedding of Cana, he tells his mother that his hour had not yet come. What does this mean? His hour has come—to be glorified. That sounds like he will ride into Jerusalem on a white horse with the armies of heaven. So, how is he to be gloried? He uses a metaphor of sowing grains of wheat into the earth. He is the grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die. He knows that his death will bear much fruit … He knows his death is how these Greeks and every tribe, kindred, and tongue will see Jesus! John wants us to see the cross as the ultimate means of glorification and the logic of his resurrection. Why is the cross the ultimate means of glorification? Because of what his death alone accomplishes. Jesus continues… 25 Whoever loves his life (psuche) loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. The word for life used here is psyche – translated as life or soul. This source of life, the ego, alienated from God and in rebellion towards God, must be crucified. The Psyche must fall into the ground and die so that newness of life in Christ can emerge. The “I” no longer lives but Christ lives in its place. To hate one's life in this world? To hate one's life in this world is not about self-annihilation but a recognition of the self in rebellion against God. Rejecting the false self is a way of caring for the true self. A shift from “my will” to “His will.” Jesus is saying to be truly human, one must undergo this difficult death of the false self. St. Ignatius of Antioch ... read. Not yet born, not yet alive, not yet human. Today's Gospel passage says the same thing. Our transfiguration will come through submitting our daily struggle to live in union with Jesus. He identifies with the struggle: 27Now my soul (psyche) is troubled. Jesus saw his cross as the great cosmic exorcism of the world. Until Christ returns, we remain in battles and blessings. Through it all, we have been united with Christ. The power of the cross enables us to live in newness of life. The power of the cross brings us under the reign of grace. The cross is the power of God unto salvation. Let us cling to His cross, proclaiming his death until he returns.

Peter closes out his second letter with specific instructions for the church. As we continue to faithfully follow after Christ we are to be on guard and rooted in the Truth so that we don't fall into lawless living. Until Christ comes again we are to grow in grace and knowledge of Him who is our Savior.

People get _________ but enjoy it _________. Proverbs 14:30 A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. 3 Areas of Discontentment: MATERIAL discontentment RELATIONAL discontentment. SITUATIONAL discontentment. We are discontent because we expect ______________ to fill a void only ______________ can fill. James 3:14-16 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Until Christ is all you ______________ you won't realize that Christ is all you ______________. "Contentment makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor." - Benjamin Franklin. Hebrews 13:5 (NIV) Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Discontentment is saying that things are more ______________ than God Psalm 23:1 A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need. 1 Timothy 6:6-9 Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. 7 After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. 8 So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. 9 But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. The secret of contentment is being ___________________ with Christ.

Welcome to Day 2231 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom Hebrews-3 Subjection...Suffering...and Sanctification – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 04/30/2023 “Subjection…Suffering…and Sanctification”  Hebrews 2:5-18 Last week, we continued our extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Our focus was not to drift away from our spiritual foundation. Today, I will read Hebrews 2:5-18 as we go through the message on page 1864 of your Pew Bibles. Perspective (Point of View)—that's what the first-century readers of Hebrews needed and what we all need as we face the tsunamis of suffering in this life. We need to recognize where we are in God's story and trust that the pioneer and perfecter of our faith will bring this world (and all His faithful followers) to a good and glorious end. /The remainder of Hebrews 2 provides this perspective. (Point of view) Following his comments regarding angels in chapter 1 (and a strong warning that Christians must guard against neglecting their salvation in 2:1-4,) the writer of Hebrews returns to his discussion of angels,/ this time in their relationship to humanity. At the beginning of God's story, humans were originally designed to exercise dominion over the created world. But on this side of Genesis 3, after the fall of humanity, that original intention for men and women was suspended, and we are subject to suffering and the effects of a cursed world. However, the writer of Hebrews pulls back the curtain ever so briefly and gives us a teaser trailer of a future in which the ultimate Son of Man, Jesus Christ, will lead the redeemed to realize their full potential in God's plan. Coming to their rescue, Jesus Christ will restore to humanity what they lost in Adam. Until then, we're all stuck in an often bleak series of scenes characterized by suffering. But even amid this suffering, God is working things together for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28). Until Christ comes and establishes the new global Eden, that is, the finalization of God's kingdom, we can expect to suffer through the long, arduous, and often painful process of sanctification. 2:5–8 5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified: (PS 8:4-6) “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little[a] lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor 8     and put everything under their feet.”[b][c] In putting everything under them,[

Converge Conference 2023 - Session 4- Sunday Morning Acts 1:6-11 – Until Christ comes, He has called us to go with the gospel until all have heard. Our lives are purposed to join Him in making disciples of all nations.

Until Christ's return, believers have reason to fast, but after His second coming the true feasting will begin.

The Sermon for Sunday, August 28th, 2022, is based on Luke 12:32-40 Today's Focus: The Christian looks forward with faith to the heavenly kingdom. Until Christ comes, the Christian lives with a heart at rest; and, when Christ comes, the Christian is ready for his arrival. Our worship follows Morning Praise. Sermon Given By: Paul Jenkins Trinity Lutheran Church is located in Woodbridge, VA, USA and is a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). If you would like more information about our congregation, please visit www.trinityofwoodbridge.org or www.facebook.com/trinityofwoodbridge Welcome! If you are a visitor, please consider joining us in-person at our worship services each Sunday at 10AM. If you would like Pastor Jenkins to contact you, please find our contact info here: https://trinityofwoodbridge.org/contact-us/ Download the worship folder here: https://trinityofwoodbridge.org/sunday-worship/ Podcasts of each sermon can be found here: https://trinityofwoodbridge.org/audio-sermons/ Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE, License 735256-A and Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI). All rights reserved.

"Until Christ has broken you down in your area of greatest competency, you'll never understand just how much you need Him." - Jonathan Pokluda In this episode, Emma Dotter is joined by Grace McKeehan to talk about just that. Simon was failing as a fisherman, Jesus met him in that failure, and his life was never the same. 

We'd all like to live better lives than we are. Usually, it's easy to see the evil without, but not all of us recognize the enemy within. In this message from John 13, in which Jesus washes Peter's feet, we are confronted with three lessons which expose us before God. Until Christ cleanses us on the inside, we're dirty no matter how wonderful we look on the outside. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/172/29

We'd all like to live better lives than we are. Usually, it's easy to see the evil without, but not all of us recognize the enemy within. In this message from John 13, in which Jesus washes Peter's feet, we are confronted with three lessons which expose us before God. Until Christ cleanses us on the inside, we're dirty no matter how wonderful we look on the outside. This month's special offer is available for a donation of any amount. Get yours at rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-217-9337.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Good morning, church. Welcome. Oh, nice response this time. That's great. I know we've all been waiting for this week. It's finally here. It's the party passage week. I brought out my colored pants. They're the only colored pants my wife allows me to keep anymore and these have be officially named my party pants. As of today, we are in the party passage, the end of Romans 8:31-39 is where we will be today.I want us to understand this text is encouraging. When we read this, we are going to get jacked up excited, ready to go. The way I think about it is when I was a kid, my favorite movies were the Rocky movies. I loved Rocky because first and foremost, they are fighting movies and you're a kid and you're just, "Yeah, punch somebody." And you get to see him getting hit in the face again and again, and he just takes it, and then he comes out swinging and he wins. I would be so excited I would just start punching the pillows on the couch like, "Yeah, I'm going to fight somebody."So much so that my parents eventually bought me a standup punching bag thing, a little electronic one, really cheap online. I would only really ever use it after watching Rocky movies because I was so excited. The problem was I didn't have a purpose for that excitement, I just was excited. And so I had nothing to do with that excitement, but punch things and that's not good.What our text is today is building up that excitement in us. However, we have a purpose. We have a mission with which we are to use this excitement, this joy, this energy, ready to go and use it for the kingdom of God. So that is the framework I want us to understand going into this text today. Also, I realized I didn't introduce myself. Most of you know me, you responded with hello. I'm Tyler. If you don't know me, if you're new, welcome, we're glad that you are here worshiping with us. Will you pray with me over the reading and preaching of God's holy word?Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you, we praise you that you are a God of power, a God of complete decisiveness who acts on our behalf, who conquers for us, and enables us to live in your power and your freedom. Lord, help us to be encouraged, stir up our hearts to be encouraged to leave this place living lives that boldly, powerfully proclaim who you are and live lives unafraid, unashamed of any attacks of sin, Satan, suffering. Anything the world has to offer, Lord, we know you are greater. Fortify our minds around that you are the greatest conqueror. Lord, we praise you, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.All right, we are in Romans 8:31-39. If you have your Bibles, you could follow along, otherwise, it'll be on the screens behind us. Let's read. It says, "what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies? Who is to condemn? Christ. Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations, or distress or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written.""For your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us for, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord."Amen. This is the reading of God's holy inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our heart? This is exciting. We're going to be spending our times in three points today, overly conquering sin, overly conquering suffering, and overly conquering the world. Well, why is it overly conquering? We're going to address that first. What do I mean by overly conquering? When we use the word overly before things, it tends to take a negative tone. Like someone's excited, that's a good thing. It's good to be excited, but overly excited, you're like, "Whoa, hold up. You're a little annoying with that excitement."That's not what we're talking about here. This is a good, great thing. Overly conquering, where do we get this from? It's kind of the framework that Paul builds this text around. The most clear example is in verse 37 where it says "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." The more is the idea that we didn't just win, we didn't just conquer, we completely totally conquered. There is no doubt at all that we have conquered.And then he also starts our text with this in verses 31 and 32. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will he not also with Him graciously give us all things?" See, the emphasis is not that we in and of ourselves are conquerors. The idea is that because of the actions, the works, the power of God, He has completely conquered. And for those who are in Christ, that is now applied to us.So when we think of this idea of overly conquering as we go through this whole text thinking of overly conquering, I want us to understand it's God who is the over-conqueror and that is applied to us through Christ. Even later on Paul quotes from Psalm chapter 44 where he says like, "We are being slaughtered all the day long." Like, "Wow, that's really encouraging text to say, 'Get us ready to go.'" What is going on there? But in Psalm 44 even it starts by saying this, "O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us what deeds you performed in the days of old you with your own hand, drove out the nations, but then you planted. You afflicted the peoples, but then you set free. For not by their own sword, did they win the land nor did their own arms save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face for you delighted in them."Throughout scripture and throughout the history of the world throughout our lives, God is the one who has victory. God is the one who gives us victory. He gives his people, Israel, the victory. And so when we think about conquering, focus on the God who has historically always conquered. He has not lost. When you think about that, that should get us going. So now what specifically is Paul talking about us conquering? This is our first point. First and foremost, he's talking about overly conquering sin.This is our text in verses 33 and 34. "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us." The imagery Paul is getting is a court case. Think about a courtroom where the judge seated on the bench is God the Father, He is sitting there, and we are down below, and next to us is the prosecutor, we are the defendant. So there's a prosecutor, prosaccuser we could say Satan, who is called the accuser in the Book of Revelation. That's his title. He's trying to accuse us before God."See, they have sinned, God. They are wicked. They are evil. They have done all these things." And it says, who can bring a charge against God's elect? This is really comforting. If Satan tries to bring a charge against us, if anybody is like, "God, they did this. God, didn't you see how they sinned? Look at them. They are guilty." God turns to Satan and says, "No, I justified them." God did it, not us. It's God's power that justified us. Who can condemn? Satan says, but there's a whole long list of them, God. There's not just one thing. There's so many.And since you justified them, they continue to sin. They continue to do more. There's even more. They should be condemned to hell. Oh, and we have the greatest trial attorney ever, Jesus Christ. He was like, "Oh, Father, just so you know, I remember I paid that." He is interceding on our behalf saying to God the Father, "Remember the work I've done on the cross. I have paid the penalty. You cannot condemn them." This is the greatest comfort that we can have that is not dependent on us. It is not dependent on our own faith in every moment. It's not dependent on our own ability to be obedient day in and day out. It's on the faithfulness of God. It's on the power of God.And that power should then encourage us and strengthen us to live lives of faithful obedience. I know we've been in Romans a while, but if you remember back to the very first week in Romans, we talked about the reason Paul is writing this book is to encourage us to faithful obedience to God. This is not just, "Oh, God did it so I'm good." It's, "God did it. I'm good. Praise Him. Now I'll live for Him." Last week, Pastor Shane talked about how the Holy Spirit is interceding for us, specifically in our prayers, and what a comfort that is in our sufferings.Here, we see Jesus is interceding for us daily. Two-thirds of the Godhead are interceding for us. Two-thirds of the Trinity are interceding for us. What about God the Father? Oh, He doesn't need to intercede, because He's already done. He's the one who executes judgment and He has forgiven us. So he executes His forgiveness on us and I see this most clearly, and I love this from the Book of Zechariah. I don't know about you, but it's been a while since I read Zechariah, but it is a great book. It is encouraging. And in Zechariah chapter three, we see the high priest, Joshua. This is not Joshua like most people think of, but he is a high priest at the time. He is the first high priest after the Babylonian exile when they rebuild the temple. He was one of two men charged with rebuilding the temple.And in Zechariah, we see this scene that while Joshua is still alive, Zechariah is seeing him before God. And in Zechariah 3:1, it says this. "Then He showed me Joshua, the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at His right hand to accuse Him." And the Lord says to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you O' Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments, and the angel said to those who are standing before him, 'Remove the filthy garments from him.' And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you and I will cloth you with pure investments.""And I said, 'Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord was standing by. See, whenever Satan tries to accuse us, he doesn't even get a chance if we are in Christ. God doesn't even let him speak. Before Satan can even utter the words to try and condemn us, God says, "I rebuke you, Satan. They are mine. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?"Wow. God is the one who stuck His hand and when we were all deserving to be condemned and go to hell because of our sins, God reached out, He plucked us from the fire and said, "No, you are mine." Nobody can change that. Nobody can take that away from us and the Lord rebukes anybody who dare try. Oh, we get to serve the God who did that for us. We can know that no sin can condemn us. So when we are living our lives now, okay, if you're a Christian, you have been justified by the work of Christ, dying on the cross to save you from your sins. Praise God.We still fall, we still fall short. What should we feel in those moments? Satan wants to accuse us and make us feel guilt, make us feel ashamed and say, "Oh, I am weak. I have failed." God does not want us to stay there. God wants to call out to us and say, "No, I plucked you from the fire. I have saved. You live in that joy, live in that confidence, and now go on sinning no more." If you are here today and you are not a Christian, let's say that you have not been saved from this, but God wants you. God is eagerly waiting to pull you and pluck you from that fire. Turn to him, say, "Lord Jesus, I need your saving power. It's you alone who can save me. I can do nothing to add value, to be saved. God, I need your help."Cry out to Him now and God will conquer sin. He already has conquered sin and death on the cross. Do we feel this way when we feel temptation coming? Very rarely not. I mean, sometimes. Sometimes we sin and we're like, "Ah, I wasn't even prepared for that. I am so sorry." Most times we know it's coming. We feel temptation and we're like, "Oh, do I do it? Do I not? Ugh, I did it." That's not the attitude we should have towards sin. Why? Because God conquered it. Sin has no more power, no more hold on our hearts to even draw us into it.So when we feel temptation like Paul says, we say, "No. No. God has conquered you. You have no control over me. I am living in freedom from you. I rebuke you, sin. I am living a life glorifying to God." And if we still fall short, there's still grace for us. God still forgives. It's His power. It's not dependent on our faithfulness, it's dependent on Him, but we don't take advantage of that.The second thing that God wants us to know that He has overly conquered is suffering. We've talked a lot about suffering in the past few weeks because Paul has talked a lot about suffering, because the early church suffered a lot. And throughout history, even today, the church still suffers. It's a concept that is relevant to the church always. So in our text, Paul addresses this in verses 35 and 36 where he says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written. For your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."Sheep to be slaughtered. That doesn't sound like conquering. "Jesus, what are you talking about? Paul, what are you saying here when we are able to conquer?" The first thing we need to understand is the commonality between these. I had a hard time personally tribulation, distress, persecution. What's the differences? What are the differences? They are nuanced. They are difference, but actually the thing I want to focus on is the commonality between them. What is the same amongst these things?The idea that is the same is that they are outward forces that affect us. They are on the outside. They are circumstances. They are things that are not within, they are outward that bring us suffering. I was thinking about this today, obviously preparing for the text. And if you were here a little bit early, you would know that the fire alarms went off. And while I was getting ready to prepare, and pray, and get my heart ready to go for the preaching of God's Word, I had to stand outside and wait for the fire department to come, and turn off the alarm.And I'm preaching this text to myself then. "God, you're good. You've taken care of everything. There is no outward circumstance that can affect who I am in you." Now that's a very light and easy example of this. His example is being slaughtered. That's hard. Paul, are you sure that that has no effect on me? It kind of feels like it does. It feels like I die. That's sounds like it affects me. But what he's talking about is that it has no effect on our identity, on who we are. Outward things cannot change the internal. The internal is that we are in Christ, we are His. Nothing that can happen can change that.Do we think about times when we suffer where we face tribulations or persecutions and we're like, "Ah, I don't know if I really think it's worth it right now to people I'm Christian. The consequences seem worse than the benefits, or I don't know if I should live the way I'm supposed to in this setting because the consequences seem worse than the benefits."? That's the wrong attitude, it's the wrong mentality in those situations. In those situations, our mentality should be, "God has conquered all circumstances. Whatever happens to us, He's in control. He's got it. We're good so I can live freely, faithfully to him in any circumstances, no matter what even to the point of facing death. Because if I face death, I get to be with God, praise Him. And if I get to live, I get to proclaim the Word of God, praise Him."One of the things that I think we often don't talk about in American churches enough is the early martyrs. We don't talk about them because we aren't facing the same persecutions that they are. And so we're like, "Oh, well, that's nice, but that's not really relevant to us." But today, because Paul is specifically talking about being faithful even to the point of death, I want to listen to them. They have insight that I don't have because I haven't been in that situation. Praise God. Yet, who knows?So I want to see what they have to say, gave them the strength to persevere even in those times, and to see what they said to the church who wasn't being persecuted to the point of death. What was their charge to them? So the first example I want to appeal to is Polycarp. If you know anything about Polycarp, he is the earliest recorded death of a martyr. There are others that we know were killed as martyrs before him, but he is the earliest that we have recorded exactly how he died, and what happened to him.He was a Bishop of Smyrna. So he was a religious leader over a large area, over a large church. And he was killed by being burned at the stake. So they would gather wood and kindling and throw it in a pile. They would put a person on it, they would chain him to it, then they would nail him to the post, and then they would burn him alive. He remained faithful to the end. What gave him the ability to remain faithful to the end? First, I find this so interesting. When they went to do this to him, they forgot the nails. So they're like, "Oh, let's go back and get some more nails."And Polycarp responds to them and says this, "Let me be. He who gives me the strength to endure the flames will give me strength not to flinch at the stake without you making sure of it with nails." Savage. He's like, "God's giving me the strength to endure the flames of fire. You don't need to nail me to the stake. I'm not going anywhere. God's going to give me the strength to face this suffering."Okay, what gives you that confidence? What gives you that strength? Polycarp says this, "O Lord God Almighty, Father of thy blessed and beloved Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have been given knowledge of the thyself. Thou are the God of angels and powers of the whole creation, and of all the generations of the righteous who live in thy sight. I bless the for granting me this day an hour, that I may be numbered amongst the martyrs to share the cup of thine Anointed and to rise again onto life everlasting, both in body and soul.In the immortality of the Holy Spirit, may I be received among them this day in thy presence, a sacrifice rich and acceptable, even as thou didst appoint, and for show, and dost now bring it to pass for thou art the God of truth and in thee is no falsehood. For this, and for all else beside, I praise thee, I bless thee, I glorify thee through our eternal High Priest in heaven, thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom be the glory to thee and the Holy Ghost, now and for all ages to come. Amen."When he finished saying amen, that is when they lit the fire, that is when he died. This was in 155 AD. I love this. They have the exact date, February 23rd, 155 AD. That's how detailed I'm an account we have of this. He relied first on who God is. He didn't say, "God, help me through this fire. Help me not feel pain when I'm in the fire." That's a prayer I often pray when I'm suffering like, "God, help me not to feel pain in this. Help me to just get through it." And there's nothing wrong with that, but that's not his focus.His focus isn't help me get through the pain, God. He's like, "God, you're great. I praise you. You are the good God. Glory forever. Jesus Christ, your Anointed One suffered on the cross. He died. He is with us so I can too. I can endure all suffering." If we want to endure any and all sufferings we face, we need to start by focusing on God, the God who overcame, overly conquered all sufferings.Now you say, "Okay, well I'm not being burned alive at the stake. What does this mean for me?" Well, Polycarp had a friend, the Bishop of Antioch whose name was Ignatius. Now Ignatius, I love this story because he wrote seven letters. One letter he wrote to Polycarp on his way to be killed. And he wrote a letter to Polycarp essentially saying, "We're all good. Don't try and stop them from killing me. I'm good and you might face the same thing one day so just keep persevering, keep enduring. You're going to be good. God is in control."And then he wrote six other letters to churches to encourage them in the same way. And he wrote one letter in particular to the church in Ephesus. Now, why this gets me so excited is he wrote this 40 years after Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians. So he is writing to the same people that heard the letter of Ephesians firsthand. That's pretty cool. You ever think about that like, "Wow, what would it be like to be there firsthand?" That's awesome. Well, this guy is writing to those people. He's writing to the people that was there firsthand.And what he gives is a charge for those Christians who are not being killed. He knows that they are suffering. He's writing to them while they are suffering. The church is still being persecuted, but they are not condemned to death. So that sounds a lot like us. We've talked the last few weeks. We are suffering. Christians do suffer, but we're not condemned to death right now. So what about for us?This is Ignatius' plea. He says this I know well what I am and what you are to whom I write. I am the condemned. You are the pardoned. I am in peril, you are in security." Okay, so the idea is he's condemned to death, but you're in security. You're in different positions. "You are the gateway through which we are escorted by death into the presence of God." That's a weird statement. What is he talking about? He's talking about the advancement of the gospel is able to continue through his church regardless if he dies or not. It doesn't matter, he's still able to get into heaven because it's the gospel that reigns, not him. All right."You are the initiates of the same mysteries as our saintly and renowned Paul of blessing memory. May I be found to have walked in his footsteps when I come to God who has remembered you in Christ Jesus in every one of his letters." He's reminding them. Paul just wrote to you. He died, but he is still writing to you or sorry. That came out wrong. He has died, but he was writing to you. Remember the things that he wrote to you. Then he says this. "Do your best then to meet more often to give thanks and glory to God. When you meet frequently, the powers of Satan are confounded, and in the face of your corporate faith, his maleficence crumbles. Nothing can better a state of peaceful accord from which every trace of spiritual or earthly hostility has been banished."Wow. Do you think of corporate worship this way? This is a complete mind shift. Like we are not here just to hang out. We are here to worship and praise God because He is our God regardless of suffering, regardless of anything that happens in this world. And when we worship Him, Satan is confounded. What does that mean? Satan's like, "Man, I killed some of them. I threw suffering at them. I threw tribulations. I threw hardship at them and they go back to this God and worship Him? What is going on?" Satan is confounded because he knows nothing he can do can overcome God's power, nothing. He has no power against God.So when we come here, we worship in unity, in praise of the one true righteous God because He is worthy. We don't come in and say, "Oh, it's been a hard week." It can be a hard week, and sometimes we come in with that mentality, and that's fine. Then we go to God and say, "God, it's been a hard week, but you are God still. I praise you." We don't let that affect how we worship God because He's worthy regardless. And there's something about it being corporate as well. When you're going through hard times, do you ever not want to worship? I think that's the natural temptation that Satan wants to give us.I remember a time years ago I was just depressed. Yeah, I was just depressed. And a song came on the radio where it said, "I'm going to worship you even when I don't want to." And I said to God, I was like, "Yeah, God, but I really don't want to. I'm really not feeling like it right now. This is hard." And it was hard because I was alone. Two days later, I showed up to church on Sunday and I'm singing out praises to God, and I'm losing my voice. Why? Because I'm encouraged by being with the brothers and sisters in Christ who say, "Yeah, they've had hard weeks too. They've gone through things I don't know about. It doesn't matter. They're still worshiping God. No suffering is deterring us corporately from worshiping to God." And that stirs that up in each of us individually to worship and praise God always.So when outward circumstances try to challenge us, try to tempt us away from God, do we approach them with the mentality God has overly conquered you? He has given me that power. You can do nothing, absolutely nothing to take away my salvation, to take away my confidence in Christ, to take away the work He has done. So I'm going to persevere. I'm going to continue through because of God.The last thing that we overly conquer is the world. This is a catch-all phrase for absolutely everything else. Absolutely everything else we have overly conquered because of Christ. This is verse 37 through the end. Verses 39 says this. "No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."This is one of the most powerful and most quoted texts in all of scripture. And I was thinking about this. We often only use this text at funerals. I use this text at a funeral and we often use it in funerals because it says, "Oh, not even death can separate us." So it is a great comfort at a time of a funeral for someone who is in Christ, that that's not going to separate them from the love of God. Amen. That's true. That is a great comfort. We need to start applying this text more to life as well because it talks about being true in life.It should not just be a comfort in our times of sorrow. It should be an encouragement in our times of life as well. And what Paul is saying is a totality of everything. He gives extremes of one end or the other. Neither death, nor life can separate us. Nothing can separate us. Nor angels, nor rulers. I didn't realize rulers were the opposite of angels because all rulers are demons. No, that's not what he's saying. He is saying is that the word for rulers is powers and authorities in this world, the word essentially means demons. He's talking about the demonic realm here. Because think about it, this world is called the kingdom of Satan.Until Christ comes and completely brings in His kingdom, Satan has authority here on Earth. Some, nothing that's greater than God, but he does have some. And he has structures in place. There are rulers, there are powers. And Paul is saying no angels or demons can do anything to affect your salvation in Christ, nothing can. And he says, "Nor things present, nor things to come. If you're like, "Oh I'm going through a hard time right now," Paul is encouraging you. It can't separate you from the love of God. God saved you. God plucked you out of the fire. It is His work that brings our salvation. Nothing you experience today can change that, nor things to come.If you're like, "Oh, I see the way the world is headed. It's scary. I don't like it." And it's like, "Ah, don't worry about it." Nothing that changes in this world can ever affect this salvation you have in Christ. Christ has over-conquered it all. Nor powers, this is just any like spiritual authority powers in the world. Nothing, nothing can separate us. Nor height, nor depth. I love this one because it convicted me. Height or depth, I was like tall or low. That's limiting God's height and depth.The word is actually an astrological term to describe the whole of the universe. It's the whole of the universe. He's saying absolutely no distance, one way in the universe and no distance in the other way in the universe can separate us from the love of God. It doesn't matter how far away you go, distance doesn't matter, nor anything else in all creation. Paul loves these catch-alls. He's like, "You're probably thinking of something I didn't say so nothing in creation."This should be a great encouragement. Do we live like this is true? Do we live like God has saved me totally, completely? There's nothing that can separate me from Him. So I'm going to live like it. Too often we live as if we are separated from Christ. We live as if we can do whatever we want. We follow our own desires, our own passions. Rather than saying, "God saved me. I'm running to Him. I'm going to Him. I'm doing whatever it is He wants me to do. I'm going to because I have the freedom to because God has conquered."The way that I think about these things was actually inspired a little bit by the new ESPN documentary series, The Captain, but it's about the Yankees so I won't talk about that here. Instead, I was thinking like what's a similar mentality? Derek Jeter was asked about facing the Mets in the World Series. He was like, "Did you feel threatened by the Mets?" And his response was, "I'm going to get flack for this, but they're the Mets. I knew we were going to win." And so my thought was, "What is the equivalent of that?" Patriots fans.Someone was ever to say to you, "Are you worried the Jets are going to be a greater dynasty than you?" You would start laughing and say, "They're the Jets. No, I'm not worried about this at all." And that is the mentality that Paul is talking about. When we face temptation and Satan coming at us like, "Satan, good try, but you're nothing compared to God. You're nothing. Suffering? Good try. That's a cute effort, but God is so much greater than you. You impose no threat at all. Oh, anything else we face in the world? You're not even worth my time. I am confident. I am fully assured of the salvation that I have in Christ because He did it. It is His work."And this text is positioned so perfectly in Paul's argument. Remember, he's making a whole argument this whole time. We ended the text last week talking about predestination. Why did Paul talk about predestination and God doing these things? He says, "God for new, God predestined. God did all of these things." What does this text have to do with that? And then the next text, chapter nine, is all about how God did it. And no matter what our complaints or rebuttals or questions are about it, it doesn't change the fact that God is in control of everything.But this text is trying to say to us, that is the thing that is the greatest joy. "Oh, it doesn't depend on us. Oh, we are fickle people. Our wills changed." This morning, I completely changed the format of this sermon. Why? Because I felt like it. No, because I hope it was the Holy Spirit guiding me and changing me, but I'm fickle. If any part of salvation was dependent on me, I would be terrified because what if I changed? What if I changed my mind? God says, "No." We rely on the power of God. He saves us. This is our joy. This is our confidence. And we praise Him for it. Amen.Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, you are good. You are the God who has plucked me and plucked all of your children from the fire. Lord, you have conquered everything in this world. Nothing can stand against you. Nothing even comes close. Lord, help us to live lives fully assured, fully confident that we are your children to put our faith and trust entirely in you and not in ourselves. Lord, give us hearts that build up that excitement, that encouragement so that when we leave here we go and proclaim your gospel. We go and live lives of faithful obedience to you. Give us that strength, Lord. We praise you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

     We live in a divided world. I'm speaking about a division between believers and unbelievers, children of God and children of the devil. Jesus gave this picture when He explained the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt 13:24-30). Afterwards, when Jesus was alone with His disciples, they asked for an explanation of the parable (Matt 13:36), and He said: "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. 40 So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matt 13:37-43).      In this revelation we understand: 1) God the Son has sown good seed in the world, which are believers, 2) Satan has sown weeds, which are unbelievers, 3) both live side by side until Christ returns at the end of the age, 4) at which time Jesus will send forth His angels to separate out all unbelievers, 5) which unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire, and 6) believers will enter into the millennial kingdom. We have here a picture of the current state of the world which consists of believers and unbelievers. The current state ends at the return of Christ when He renders judgment upon unbelievers and establishes His earthly kingdom.      For the present time, Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2; 1 John 5:19), and we are all born under “the dominion of Satan” (Act 26:18), into his “domain of darkness” (Col 1:13). Our spiritual state changes at the time we turn to Christ and trust Him as Savior (1 Cor 15:3-4). At the moment of faith in Christ, we became “children of God” (John 1:12), are transferred to the kingdom of His Son (Col 1:13), forgiven all our sins (Eph 1:7), given eternal life (John 10:28), the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9), and the power to live holy (Rom 6:11-14). And, it is God's will that we advance to spiritual maturity (Heb 6:1; Eph 4:11-13; 1 Pet 2:2), and serve as His ambassadors to others (2 Cor 5:20).      Are Christians called to make the world a better place? As Christians, our primary focus is evangelism and discipleship (Mark 16:15; Matt 28:19-20), not the reformation of society. Christians are to be good and do good (Gal 6:9-10; Eph 2:10; Tit 2:11-14), and in this way, society is better as a result. However, the reality is we live in a fallen world that is currently under Satan's limited rule, and God sovereignly permits this for a time. True good is connected with God and His Word, and His good is executed by those who walk according to His directives. But there are many who reject God and follow Satan's world-system, which system is always pressuring the Christian to conform (Rom 12:1-2). A permanent world-fix will not occur until Christ returns and puts down all rebellion, both satanic and human (Rev 19:11-21; 20:1-3). Those who are biblically minded live in this reality. As a result, our hope is never in this world; rather, we are “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Tit 2:13). We are looking forward to the time when Christ raptures us from this world to heaven (John 14:1-3; 1 Th 4:13-18). This will be followed by seven years of Tribulation in which God will judge Satan's world and those who abide by his philosophies and values (see Revelation chapters 6-19). Afterwards, Christ will rule the world for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-7), and shortly after that, God will destroy the current heavens and earth and create a new heavens and earth. This is what Peter is referring to when he says, “according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13; cf. Isa 65:17; Rev 21:1). Our present and future hope is in God and what He will accomplish, and not in anything this world has to offer. As Christians, we are “not of the world” (John 17:14; cf. 1 John 4:4-5), though it's God's will that we continue to live in it (John 17:15), and to serve “as lights in the world” (Phi 2:15), that others might know the gospel of grace and learn His Word and walk by faith. This understanding is shaped by God's Word, which determines our worldview.      How are we to see ourselves in this present world? In the dispensation of the church age, we understand people are either in Adam or in Christ (1 Cor 15:21-22). Everyone is originally born in Adam (Rom 5:12), but those who have trusted in Jesus as Savior are now identified with Christ (1 Cor 1:30; 2 Co 5:17; Rom 8:1; Gal 3:28; Eph 1:3). This twofold division will exist until Christ returns. Furthermore, we are never going to fix the devil or the world-system he's created. Because the majority of people in this world will choose the broad path of destruction that leads away from Christ (Matt 7:13-14), Satan and his purposes will predominate, and Christians will be outsiders. And being children of God, we are told the world will be a hostile place (John 15:19; 1 John 3:13). There will always be haters. Until Christ returns, Satan will control the majority, and these will be hostile to Christians who walk according to God's truth and love.      How should we respond to the world? The challenge for us as Christians is not to let the bullies of this world intimidate us into silence or inaction. And, of course, we must be careful not to become bitter, fearful, or hateful like those who attack us. Haters will hate. It's what they do. But the Bible teaches us to love those who hate us (Matt 5:44-45; Rom 12:14, 17-21), and we are to be kind, patient, and gentle (2 Tim 2:24-26; cf. Eph 4:1-2; Col 3:13-14). What we need is courage. Courage that is loving, kind, and faithful to share the gospel of grace and to speak biblical truth. The hope is that those who are positive to God can be rescued from Satan's domain of darkness. We can also live in the reality that God's plans will advance. He will win. His future kingdom on earth will come to pass. Christ will return. Jesus will put down all forms of rebellion—both satanic and human—and will rule this world with perfect righteousness and justice. But until then, we must continue to learn and live God's Word and fight the good fight. We are to live by faith (Heb 10:38; 11:6), share the gospel of grace (1 Cor 15:3-4), disciple others (Matt 28:19-20), be good and do good (Gal 6:9-10; Tit 2:11-14), and look forward to the return of Christ at the rapture (Tit 2:13; cf. John 14:1-3; 1 Th 4:13-18).    

The book of Ezra-Nehemiah is a call to spiritual reformation. Rebuilding the city of David is not enough. God's people must also live according to God's ways. The book casts the theme of reformation in several ways. First, the LORD uses civil leaders to bless his people and curb evil. Second, the need for reformation is constant as the people continue to fall back into old sins. Third, the ministry of God's Word is the principal means of reform. While the glory of Israel was restored for a season, Jerusalem's temple was rebuilt, and the walls repaired, the greater and constant need of God's people is to be built up by the ministry of God's Word. We are ever in need of reformation. As we turn to the New Testament, we discover this greater truth. God uses the ministry of his gospel preachers to save, strengthen, and reform his church -cf. Acts 2-14ff- Eph. 4-11- Titus 1-9- 2 Tim. 2-2- 4-2-. Until Christ returns and ushers us into the eternal city, the church will be in continual need of reformation. Not a reform to new ideas, but a reform that calls us back to the ancient and authentic ways, to the Word of God.

The book of Ezra-Nehemiah is a call to spiritual reformation. Rebuilding the city of David is not enough. God's people must also live according to God's ways. The book casts the theme of reformation in several ways. First, the LORD uses civil leaders to bless his people and curb evil. Second, the need for reformation is constant as the people continue to fall back into old sins. Third, the ministry of God's Word is the principal means of reform. While the glory of Israel was restored for a season, Jerusalem's temple was rebuilt, and the walls repaired, the greater and constant need of God's people is to be built up by the ministry of God's Word. We are ever in need of reformation. As we turn to the New Testament, we discover this greater truth. God uses the ministry of his gospel preachers to save, strengthen, and reform his church -cf. Acts 2-14ff- Eph. 4-11- Titus 1-9- 2 Tim. 2-2- 4-2-. Until Christ returns and ushers us into the eternal city, the church will be in continual need of reformation. Not a reform to new ideas, but a reform that calls us back to the ancient and authentic ways, to the Word of God.

A new MP3 sermon from Maidenbower Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Until Christ comes Speaker: Jeremy Walker Broadcaster: Maidenbower Baptist Church Event: Sunday - AM Date: 4/17/2022 Bible: 1 Corinthians 11:26 Length: 36 min.

Until Christ comes back, we have the Holy Spirit: He is our Comforter, our Helper, our Intercessor. And He also empowers us! When I'm asking for the Holy Spirit – and I'm always asking for more of Him in my life – I say, “Jesus, You said when You went to Heaven, You would ask the Father and He would send the Holy Spirit. I'm calling upon You Jesus now, to send a double portion of the Holy Spirit on me, to change nations in Your Name! Jesus! You are so wonderful, so glorious, You are the One we worship, no one else, nothing else. Only You, Jesus!” I'm urging you to call upon Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit: the 'Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf].'

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.19 "Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."The Old and the New Jesus is about to deliver the new "legislation" of the Kingdom of God. He knows that, at first glance, some of these teachings may sound as though they are contradicting what Moses said in the Law.Thus he explains in advance that he is neither annulling nor opposing the Law.The "commandments" are his commands, found throughout the gospels.What is "fulfillment"?It is not obedience – although Jesus did obey the Law.It is not annulment — although it is true that we are no longer living under the Law.It involves more than loose verbal connections with the details of prophecies.It is completion—in the same way that Christianity is the fulfillment and extension of Judaism.Think of a jigsaw puzzle. The OT gives us the frame, and several sections of the puzzle are nearly completed. But we're missing the box with the cover picture!Examples of fulfillment:Divine presence: Tabernacle – Temple – Body of Christ — Church — New JerusalemSacrifice: Animal sacrifices etc. — Christ, the perfect and complete and final sacrifice.Holy times / occasions; now, all time holy.Anointing (Messiah = anointed one)ProphetPriestKing[Further material in our series Christ Through the Ages]David Bercot: "The early Christians understood Jesus to be saying that he was filling out the Law. He was completing some parts of it, while amplifying other parts of it. He was both reshaping it and sometimes widening it." (The Early Christian Study Bible)Not an iota? The iota is the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, and is equivalent to the Hebrew yodh and the English lower case i.The entire OT Torah is important!When is the time of fulfillment?The Cross? This is what I used to teach, referring to John 19:30 ("It is finished") and Col 2:14 ("canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands"), and to some extent this is true. But more likely, the meaning is:Until Christ returns, the Law will not pass away. Nevertheless, the NT teaches that we are no longer bound by the ritualistic and temporary requirements of the Law—a large part—since they have already served (fulfilled) their purpose.However, the Law itself is still very relevant.Christ is both typified and specifically prophesied about in the Law.The Law contains a large amount of background material, without which we would be disoriented as we read the NT.Although the ceremonial provisions of the Law have served their purpose and are no longer binding, we are still under what Paul calls the “righteous requirements of the Law” (Rom. 2:26 NKJV). That is, we are under the righteous moral precepts taught by the Law. Commandments? The commandments (v.19) are Jesus' own commandments, not the commandments of the Law.Those who disregard them are called “least in the kingdom of heaven”; the Law of Moses Law did not pertain to the kingdom of heaven.Jesus is telling His listeners that he expects them to honor his kingdom commandments with the same (or greater) honor that the ancient Jews rendered to the Law of Moses.Some object that there are no laws or commandments in the gospel. Yet “He that has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him” (John 14:21). See also John 13:34; 14:14, 21; 15:10, 12.Of course not all commandments are equally important—as with the Law of Moses (Matt 23:23). Some requirements of the Law were weightier than others. But the lesser ones were not to be neglected. Obedience is expected.ChallengeWe need to take the OT seriously. Most Christians have never read the entire OT.We also need to pay close attention to how the OT is completed in the New.When it comes to obeying God's commands, there is no room for slackness!

We live in the world, but this is not our true home. Until Christ returns or calls us home, we are line in the "in between". Also, I talk about getting married. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kylesmith1626/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kylesmith1626/support

     We live in a divided world. I'm speaking about a division between believers and unbelievers, children of God and children of the devil. Jesus gave an illustration when He told the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt 13:24-30). Afterwards, when Jesus was alone with His disciples, they asked for an explanation of the parable (Matt 13:36), and Jesus said: "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matt 13:37-43).      In this revelation we understand: 1) God the Son has sown good seed in the world, which are believers, 2) Satan has sown weeds, which are unbelievers, 3) both live side by side until Christ returns at the end of the age, 4) at which time Jesus will send forth His angels to separate out all unbelievers, 5) which unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire, and 6) believers will enter into the millennial kingdom. That's a picture of the current state spiritual of affairs which are followed with eschatological certainties concerning judgment and kingdom rule.      For the present time, Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2; 1 John 5:19). We are all born under “the dominion of Satan” (Act 26:18), into his “domain of darkness” (Col 1:13). Our spiritual state changes at the time we turn to Christ and trust Him as Savior (1 Cor 15:3-4). At the moment of faith in Christ, we become “children of God” (John 1:12), are transferred to the kingdom of His Son (Col 1:13), forgiven all our sins (Eph 1:7), given eternal life (John 10:28), the gift of righteousness (Rom 5:17; Phil 3:9), and the power to live holy (Rom 6:11-14). And, it is God's will that we advance to spiritual maturity (Heb 6:1; Eph 4:11-13; 1 Pet 2:2), and serve as His ambassadors to others (2 Cor 5:20).      Are Christians called to make the world a better place? Certainly, those who know God and walk in His Word will live moral lives and bring improvement wherever they go. However, that's not really our calling or objective. As a Christian, our primary focus is evangelism and discipleship (Mark 16:15; Matt 28:19-20), not the reformation of society. Though Christians are to be good and do good (Gal 6:9-10; Eph 2:10; Tit 2:11-14), the reality is we live in a fallen world that is currently under Satan's limited rule, and God sovereignly permits this for a time. True good is connected with God and His Word, and His good is executed—in part—by those who walk according to His biblical directives. But there are many who reject God and follow Satan's world-system, which system is always pressuring us to conform (Rom 12:1-2). A permanent world-fix will not occur until Christ returns and puts down all rebellion, both satanic and human (Rev 19:11-21; 20:1-3). Those who are biblically minded live in this reality. As a result, our hope is never in this world; rather, we are “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Tit 2:13). We are looking forward to the time when Christ raptures us from this world to heaven (John 14:1-3; 1 Th 4:13-18). This will be followed by seven years of Tribulation in which God will judge Satan's world and those who abide by his philosophies and values (see Revelation chapters 6-19). Afterwards, Christ will rule the world for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-7), and shortly after that, God will destroy the current heavens and earth and create a new heavens and earth. This is what Peter is talking about when he says, “according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13; cf. Isa 65:17; Rev 21:1). Our present and future hope is in God and what He will accomplish, and not in anything this world has to offer. As Christians, we are “not of the world” (John 17:14; cf. 1 John 4:4-5), though it's God's will that we continue to live in it (John 17:15), and to serve “as lights in the world” (Phi 2:15), that others might know the gospel of grace and learn His Word and walk by faith. This understanding is shaped by God's Word, which determines our worldview.      How are we to see ourselves in this present world? In the dispensation of the church age, we understand people are either in Adam or in Christ (1 Cor 15:21-22). Everyone is originally born in Adam (Rom 5:12), but those who have trusted in Jesus as Savior are now identified as being in Christ (1 Cor 1:30; 2 Co 5:17; Rom 8:1; Gal 3:28; Eph 1:3). This twofold division will exist until Christ returns. Furthermore, we are never going to fix the devil or the world-system he's created. Because the majority of people in this world will choose the broad path of destruction that leads away from Christ (Matt 7:13-14), Satan and his purposes will predominate, and Christians will be outsiders. And being children of God, we are told the world will be a hostile place (John 15:19; 1 John 3:13). There will always be haters. Until Christ returns, Satan will control the majority, and these will be hostile to Christians who walk according to God's truth and love.      How should we respond to the world? The challenge for us as Christians is not to let the bullies of this world intimidate us into silence or inaction. And, of course, we must be careful not to become bitter, fearful, or hateful like those who attack us. The Bible teaches us to love those who hate us (Matt 5:44-45; Rom 12:14, 17-21), and we are to be kind, patient, and gentle (2 Tim 2:24-26; cf. Eph 4:1-2; Col 3:13-14). What we need is courage. Courage that is loving, kind, and faithful to share the gospel of grace and to speak biblical truth. The hope is that those who are positive to God can be rescued from Satan's domain of darkness. We also live in the reality that God's plans will advance. He will win. His future kingdom on earth will come to pass. Christ will return. Jesus will put down all forms of rebellion—both satanic and human—and will rule this world with perfect righteousness and justice. But until then, we must continue to learn and live God's Word and fight the good fight. We are to live by faith (Heb 10:38; 11:6), share the gospel of grace (1 Cor 15:3-4), disciple others (Matt 28:19-20), be good and do good (Gal 6:9-10; Tit 2:11-14), and look forward to return of Christ at the rapture (Tit 2:13; cf. John 14:1-3; 1 Th 4:13-18).  

Objections to One-Time ConfessionSome might say, “But what about what Isaiah said in chapter 59 verse 2 that our sins put a separation wall between us and God, that they hide His face from us and that He will not hear us? Doesn't that mean that we come out of fellowship with God and that we need to confess our sins to Him in order for Him to hear us again?” No, it doesn't. Isaiah lived before the cross, Jesus had not paid for his sins yet, and Isaiah was not a new creation in Christ. Indeed, during his time and during the Old Covenant period, people's sins created a separation wall between them and God, and God didn't hear them until they humbled themselves before God, and brought the animal sacrifices for atonement. However, Christ is our eternal sacrifice that has cleansed us from all sin once and for all. So, in the New Testament, our sinful deeds don't put a separation wall between us and God anymore. God doesn't hide His face from us, and He always hears us, no matter what we did wrong.  ”But what about Proverbs 28:13, where King Solomon says: Proverbs 28:13 (NKJV) 13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”? The same explanation given for Isaiah's case is relevant here as well. King Solomon needed the mercy of God and his prosperity depended on his obedience to the Law, because he was walking in darkness. His sins had not been removed yet. All the people of the Old Testament relied on the mercy of God for their blessing and prosperity. Until Christ would come, God overlooked temporarily their sins when they obeyed the Law or brought the animal sacrifices. However, in the New Testament, the new creation has become prosperity (2 Corinthians 8:9) without any qualification, because of Christ's righteousness, and believers have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). Believers in Christ don't have sins to cover or confess anymore, because they were all taken away at the cross.  “But what about King David when he lamented in Psalm 32:1-5 and Psalm 38:18 about his sins and confessed them? Shouldn't we follow his example?” Let's read those passages.  Psalm 32:1–5 (NKJV) 1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doesn't impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I haven't hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Psalm 38:18 (NASB95) 18 For I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin.  If we look carefully at the first two verses of Psalm 32, we will notice that King David prophesied by the Spirit about the time when people's transgressions will be forgiven and the Lord will not impute iniquity to them anymore. He rejoiced looking ahead at the days we are living now. However, in his time, he had to confess his sins to the Lord to receive mercy and he probably confessed more in the hope of saving his son from the death punishment. And even though King David confessed his sins many times and asked for forgiveness from God, his confession and tears were not the ones which atoned for his sin. David still had to bring sacrifices to atone for his sins according to the Law.  Finally, “what about the Lord's prayer from Luke 11:2-4 or Matthew 6:9-13, where Jesus tells us to ask the Father to forgive our sins? Isn't He telling us to confess our sins to God?” Let's read the Lord's prayer passage in Luke: Luke 11:2–4 (NKJV) 2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”  If we take a close look at the Lord's prayer in the light of the Gospel, we will quickly notice that the Lord's prayer is an Old Testament prayer and not a New Testament one. First, we need to realize that the disciples who asked Jesus to teach them how to pray were Jews, accustomed with the Law and the Torah. Second, Jesus hadn't died yet on the cross in order to establish a prayer model according to the new creation era and He couldn't disclose yet the plan God had through the cross, otherwise the devil would have never crucified Him. At that moment in time, Jesus was still in the Old Testament period. The transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant had not been made yet. For example, He said in verse 2 to pray that God's Kingdom would come on earth. That was the longing and the prayer of all Old Testament prophets, that the Kingdom of God would come. This was supposed to happen when Messiah would come. At that point in time, this kind of prayer made sense because the Kingdom had not come yet. However, we see later in Romans 14:17, as well as in other places, that Jesus brought the Kingdom on earth, especially after the cross, although not in its full visible manifestation yet:  Mark 1:14–15 (NKJV) 14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Luke 17:20–21 (NKJV) 20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!' or ‘See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”  Romans 14:17 (NKJV) 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Then in Luke 11:3, Jesus told His disciples to ask the Father for the daily bread. However, we see later in Ephesians 1:3 and 2 Peter 1:3 that God has already blessed believers with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places and everything pertaining to life and godliness. At the end of the prayer, Jesus instructs the disciples to ask the Father to deliver them from the evil one. That made sense before the cross, because all people were in the domain of darkness and under the authority of the devil and they needed God to intervene and help them. However, later, Colossians 1:13 says that believers have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. Moreover, Ephesians 2:6 and 1:20-23 shows that believers have the same rank and authority of the right hand of the Father as Jesus Christ, and their authority in Christ is far above all rule, authority, power and lordship. The new creations don't need to pray for deliverance from the evil one, because they have already been delivered from him. Similarly, the prayer for forgiveness of sins, conditioned by their forgiveness of others was an Old Testament prayer. In the Old Testament, the people of God had to repeatedly bring sacrifices and ask for forgiveness of their sins. However, even this Old Testament prayer of asking for forgiveness of sins was not a confession of individual specific sins, but a general one of all sins. The Greek word used here is again Hamartia, in plural form, depicting the totality of all sin in the life of that person as nature or deeds, and not as specific known sinful actions.  After all this teaching about confession of sins, you might be wondering yourself: “So what am I supposed to do then when I sin? Should I confess my sin to God or not? How do I continue to relate to Him?”  What to Do When We SinnedIf we are honest with ourselves, most of the times, we don't feel condemned about every little sin that we did or about sins that we are not aware of, like Martin Luther. Usually, there are specific sins that the devil or our conscience bring to our minds and condemn us with, sinful behaviors and attitudes that we've probably repeated many times and were unable yet to overcome. Those are the times when we feel the need to say something to God about our sins before we can move on. On one hand, we feel condemned about those sins and unworthy to approach God. On the other hand, we know that all our sins have been removed forever, and this creates a real conflict inside of us. This inner conflict is also fueled by the fact that we still live in a fallen world, where forgiveness of someone depends on the other person apologizing first and making the first step towards reconciliation. Our minds are programmed to think that way and to transfer by analogy the same kind of interaction to the relationship between God and us. Before I provide a practical solution to this inner conflict and to the question about what to do when we sin, we need to be aware of one thing. Any form of confession of sins and any type of forgiveness plea to God for our sins will not forgive those sins in that moment in time, neither will they justify us or maintain us justified. They will not make us more worthy to receive blessings from God or minister to others, nor will it maintain our salvation intact, as if our salvation was in jeopardy before. Yes, the salvation of our soul and body are progressive, but the salvation of our spirit is a one-time deal that lasts for eternity. We don't confess a sin to God to be forgiven. God has already forgiven all our sins, and they were removed forever. Acknowledging before God the known wrong that we did, with which our conscience condemns us, will only cleanse our conscience and help our mind get over it. It will help us relate to God again in sincerity with all our heart. In other words, it will help us to forgive ourselves in our mind, it will appease our conscience, and it will enable us to relate to God openly and fearless again. We should absolutely do that if our mind and conscience bother us and we cannot get over it just through the Word of God. We should say “I am sorry” to God if there is something specific that we feel condemned about, for the sake of our conscience, so that our conscience would not become dull, hardened, and insensitive. However, we should not stay there and focus on our sin for too long. We need to immediately focus our attention to the truth of the Word of God about our sins and start thanking Him and praising Him for what He has done. We should begin declaring what the Word of God says about our new identity in Christ, and not lounge any longer in the accuser's condemnation. This is part of cleansing our conscience of sins with the water of the Word.  Therefore, when there is a sin that bothers us when we try to fellowship with God, the right way to deal with it or to confess it should be something of the following: “Father, I am so sorry for the wrong thing that  I did. I acknowledge it's a sin and that, as a new creation in Christ, I should not have done it. I admit that I played with death and I did harm to myself, that I grieved Your Holy Spirit and frustrated Your grace. But I thank You that my sin has already been removed from me and washed away by the blood of Jesus. Thank you that I am still a new creation in Christ, that Your love is unconditional, and that I am free of condemnation forever (Romans 8:1). I am dead to sin and alive to righteousness (Romans 6:11). Sin doesn't have dominion over me anymore, because I am under grace (Romans 6:14). Jesus Christ is my righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). I am born of God and I overcome the world (1 John 5:4). I am the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:14). I walk in the light and I will never walk in darkness (1 John 1:5-7). I have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Your beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). Thank you Father that I am accepted in the Beloved and highly favored in Your sight (Ephesians 1:5-7).” Now, you may ask: “Will not this way of confessing sins soften me towards sin? Will not this give me more license to sin?” No, it will certainly not. It's exactly the opposite: it will give you more freedom from sin. Have you noticed that you still sin without a license if you want to? Paul says in Romans 6:2, “How can we who died to sin continue to live in?” If you were genuinely born again, can you do whatever you want and still remain saved? Yes, of course. But why would you think of doing evil since you repented and came on God's side?  Why would you want to sin since you don't have a sinful nature anymore? Actually, a better question is this: If you were genuinely born again and you have the right teaching about who you are in Christ, do you think you will be able to continue to want to sin indefinitely? I don't think so. Can God do whatever He wants? Yes of course. But does that freedom give Him license to sin? Never. His freedom of doing whatever He wants has some boundaries. Could Jesus have done whatever He wanted on earth? Yes, of course. But Has He ever sinned? No. Perhaps, when you hear this message for the first time, you might have the tendency to indulge in your sinful habits at first, especially if you have been for a long time under many religious rules and under the fear of hell or of losing your salvation. You might still feel like you enjoy certain sins and pleasures, although your spirit has been completely recreated. That happens because your feelings and behaviors are skewed and not fully aligned yet with the desires of your new spirit due to an unrenewed mind. In fact, freedom to live for God without any conditions and threats can be a real challenge for many. However, this does not mean that this perspective on confession of sins gives you license to sin more. Your sinful actions or habitual sins only reflect what was already in your heart and what needs to be corrected and changed through the renewal of your mind. Your spirit is perfectly holy; it doesn't like to sin. The more you renew your mind to your new identity in Christ, your desires, likes, and feelings will change accordingly, and align themselves to your new identity. Slowly, the love of God will compel you and bring you back from your indulgences and sinful behaviors. But this time you will be a real free person, and you will walk in holiness because you want to and because you truly love God, and not because of constraints and threats of hell.  Going a step further, the Bible's solution to overcoming sinful behaviors is to always remind ourselves about our righteous identity in Christ. This is not to encourage us to sin more or soften us towards the gravity of sin and of its consequences. Rather this reminding is intended to focus our attention on our Savior, Who paid in full at the cross for our sins, and to encourage us to live according to the new creation's identity that Jesus established at the cross. This is what true repentance is all about—turning to the cross and returning to His grace! When you fail, know that you can always talk to God openly about your failure, but do it with a revelation of the weight of the cross and of its victory. See your sins already punished in His body and receive afresh His forgiveness and unmerited favor, so that you can conquer your sins.

Until Christ returns, God is calling us to arise and build His church in the power of His Holy Spirit.   Check out our You Version live event to follow along with today's sermon! http://bible.com/events/48714305   Recorded on June 13, 2021.

Until Christ comes again, we must be conscious of our gospel calling.

This episode requires a subscription! https://anchor.fm/wordsoflovepodcast/subscribe https://anchor.fm/wordsoflovepodcast/subscribeHey y'all! In this episode, I'm joined again by my newfound friend Weston Kephart! Y'all probably remember him from S1E5 “I Used to be Gay...Until CHRIST” in which West share's his testimony of how he used to be gay, but is now denies his sin and is alive in Christ. It's a powerful testimony, so go stream it! In this episode, we discuss what it means to deny our flesh and pursue Christ. It's not an easy task (AT ALL!), which is why we need to ask the Holy Spirit for discernment and Jesus for strength. We also discuss our thoughts on PRIDE (as it is Pride Month) and how this celebration of LGBTQ goes against the perfect will of God and His intentional design for love in humanity. We also discuss Pronouns: should we honor them? Who is our identity found in? How do we determine what is sinful and what isn't? What advice/words do you have for people in the LGBTQ community? And how can we as Christians demonstrate love for everyone without compromising on Christ's instructions? Hit that play button and listen in to see what the Word has to say!!! As always, speak love and live it!

A worldwide revival is coming, which will bring a great harvest into the Kingdom of God. When we were unsaved, we were unspiritual and under the wrath of God but when we were born again it came about by the Holy Spirit overshadowing us and Christ being birthed within us. We need to be revived unto this truth through visitations from God. We need to be prepared and positioned for a visitation. In times of visitations from God, supernatural things happen, breakthroughs, and everything else becomes easier, our spirits are preserved and revived. At these times we also experience the shalom of God – miracles, joy, deliverance; divine help and provision, rich abundant overflow, restoration, healing, and fulfillment of seemingly impossible prophetic words. We also experience sanctification, seasons are shifted, new things are brought to birth and Jesus gets the glory. Without God and the things of the Spirit, our souls will incline towards earthiness, naturalness. God knows this because He is mindful of us and He sends Jesus (our breaker) to visit us and to revive the fire of the Spirit in us. We can have a visitation from God at any time we desire it. To experience such a visitation, we must use the keys of having strong expectancy; spend time in the Word, and exercising faith activities like getting personal with God. It is important to have a hunger and thirst for God – to seek Him before you get to a place of total desperation, and get into His presence with prayer and fasting, glorifying and praising Him and obeying the promptings of the Spirit unto prayer. Getting into- and devouring the Word is another key to experiencing a visitation from God, as well as prophesying the word of the Lord. These are all the ways of the Spirit. Until Christ finally appears, we will keep on needing and having times of refreshing.

Until Christ's return, we celebrate the Lord's Supper to remember His death for sins and to renew our bond as His people.

THE GREATEST PROPHECY EVER GIVEN Daniel 9:24-27 has been called “The Greatest Prophecy Ever Given”. It is commonly referred to as “The Seventy Weeks of Daniel” because it was given through the prophet Daniel. Daniel 9:24–27 (NKJV) 24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. 25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” Seventy weeks is more literally “Seventy sevens”. The Jews had units of seven days called weeks, but they also had units of seven years. They were to observe seven-year cycles with every 7th year being a Sabbatical year in which the land would REST (cf. Lev. 25:3-6, 20-22). What is in view here in Daniel 9 is seventy units of 7 years, as shown by the context. Daniel has been thinking in terms of years, as seen at the outset of the chapter in Daniel 9:1-2. There are various Scriptures that intersect with the final 70th week which consistently show that 360-day years are in view (cf. Dan. 7:25; 9:27; 12:7; Rev. 11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5). 70 units of 7 years are in view and each of these years is 360 days in duration. 70 x 7 equals 490. So, 490 years, in accordance with the Jewish 360 day calendar was determined for Israel. Note this very carefully! These 70 weeks according to Daniel 9:24 apply to “your people” - that is Daniel’s people (Israel/Jews), and to “your holy city” (Jerusalem). The things in view don’t apply to the Church or to the Gentiles at all! What is in view here is God’s program for Israel ONLY. This simple reality is a major prophetic MARKER. And if you don’t get it right you will be messed up on a whole bunch of prophecy related to the Church. The first 69 weeks (483 years) were ALL fulfilled ONLY in relationship to Israel, so logical consistency says that the final 70th week – the last 7 year period also applies ONLY to Israel. This is the KEY reason to think that the entire 7 year Tribulation Period (the 70th week) has nothing to do with the Church. It specifically says it is for Daniel’s people (Israel) in relation to Daniel’s holy city (Jerusalem). This is completely Jewish. All 70 weeks are completely Jewish in orientation! This involves 70 weeks (490 years) of God's special dealings with ISRAEL! To come along later and try and insert the Church in here and say that somehow the 7-year tribulation (the 70th week of Daniel) has application to the Church is just not consistent with the text. The text itself leaves no wiggle room here for that. As far as God’s people, this targets specifically God’s people Israel and NOT the Church. Keep this basic MARKER in place and you will properly keep the Church out of the Tribulation Period. This involves basic interpretation in terms of rightly dividing the Word consistent with what the text literally and actually says. The 6 things listed in summary fashion in verse 24 are all in reference to Israel concluding with the anointing of the Holy of Holies. This is NOT Church Truth, but truth that pertains essentially to Israel. Verse 24 mentions six things that will be accomplished in reference to these 70 weeks. Repentance 1. To finish the transgression. 2. To make an end of sins. 3. To make reconciliation of iniquity. Restoration 4. To bring in everlasting righteousness. 5. To seal up vision and prophesy. 6. Anoint the Most Holy. The phrase “Most Holy” (or Holy of Holies) is used 39 times in the OT and is always used in reference to the Jewish tabernacle or temple. In view here is the kingdom temple which will be established at the completion of the 70th week. By the time the 490 years of special dealings with Israel is complete, all six of these things related to the removal of sin and the restoration of righteousness will be fulfilled. But it will involve a process involving 70 weeks of years before it is complete. Again, Daniel’s people Israel in view. This is God’s program for Israel. Verse 24 gives a comprehensive overview of all 70 weeks and where it will conclude with the completion of SIX things, but then Daniel breaks it down into three segments, as seen in verse 25, verse 26, and verse 27. Note the DOUBLE emphasis on understanding in verse 25. He says, “know” and “understand”. God wants us to get this! The 70-week (490 year) period would begin when the command was given to rebuild Jerusalem. There is only ONE command given in the OT to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and that is found in Nehemiah 2:1-8 when the Persian king Artaxerxes authorized Nehemiah to rebuild the city. This happened on March 5, 444 B.C. On this very day the divine prophetic clock started ticking on 490 years of special dealings that God has determined for Israel. From the time this command to rebuild Jerusalem was given UNTIL Christ was officially presented to Israel as her King at the time of His triumphal entry was exactly 69 weeks or 483 years. It is stated with the formula of “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks” which makes for a total of 69 consecutive weeks or 483 years. Evidently the qualifier “The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times” applies to the challenging conditions that were in place for the 49 years (7 weeks) that the city was under construction and being rebuilt. But following that would be another 62 weeks (434 years) making for a total of 483 consecutive years UNTIL Messiah would be presented at His triumphal entry. Note there is NO GAP between the 7 and the 62 weeks, so the 69 weeks here happened consecutively. “Until Messiah the Prince,” is clearly a prophecy about Jesus Christ the Messiah. This marks the time when Jesus was officially presented to Israel as a PRINCE (that is, the anointed ruler) at the time of His Triumphal Entry (cf. Ps. 118:26, Zech. 9:9, Lk. 19:28-44). From the time of the command in Nehemiah 2 until Jesus’ Triumphal Entry was a period of 62 plus 7 weeks, or 69 weeks, which equals 483 years. In terms of days, that tallies to exactly 173,880 days. Mark Hitchcock is a prophecy scholar and a pastor. But before he was a pastor he was a lawyer. Mark is so good on prophecy because he pays attention to minute detail. He says, "This exact period of time, which is 173,880 days, is the precise number of days that elapsed from March 5, 444 B.C. until March 30, A.D. 33, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem for His triumphal entry (Lk. 19:27-44). The precision with which this prophecy was fulfilled is staggering! That’s why I call it the greatest prophecy ever given. It stands as a monumental proof of the inspiration of the Bible." – Mark Hitchcock, The Amazing Claims of Bible Prophecy – p. 46 The Triumphal Entry in Luke 19:28-44 is the occasion when Jesus was officially presented to Israel as Messiah the Prince. Psalm 118:26 (NKJV) 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD. Zechariah 9:9 (NKJV) 9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. Jesus, in Luke 19:42, emphasized THIS DAY; and in verse 44, that this was THE TIME of their visitation and yet they did not realize it. The absolute exact precision fulfillment of this prophecy, which was given over 500 years in advance to the very day is absolutely incredible. Only God could do this! That is why it is called THE GREATEST PROPHECY EVERY GIVEN. And yet there is MORE! To be continued...

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival” and in this season we celebrate Jesus' birth (his first coming) and we eagerly anticipate His second coming. It is important for us to have a clear understanding of Jesus' return, so that we will not fear, dread, or ignore it. Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed…For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 16-17 NIV 1) The REALITY of Christ's Return John 14:3; Matthew 24:30 – Christ's return is a certainty. a) When? Matthew 24:36, 42, 44Only God knows when it will happen. b) What? 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 21:1, 3-4Jesus will appear in power and glory, followed by the creation of a new heaven and new earth where God dwells among His people, there will be no more tears or sorrow or pain, and the unrighteous and ungodly will be judged. 2) Our RESPONSE until Jesus Comes Again a) Watch and Wait 1 Thessalonians 5:6; Matthew 24:42; Luke 12:37a; 2 Peter 3:8-9 We live with a sense of anticipation as we look forward to a glorious reunion with our Savior. 2 b) Work and Witness 2 Peter 3:11-12a; Matthew 24:46; Acts 1:6-8 Until Christ returns, we carry on His ministry in the world. c) Worship 1 Corinthians 11:26 Worship reminds us that Jesus is coming back and prepares us for our future destiny in heaven. Conclusion ⇒ How do you respond to the statement, “Jesus is coming”? Is it with fear or panic? With excitement? With a. sense of “hurry up”? With a “not right now” because there is something more important on your mind? ⇒ How has your thinking on the return of Jesus been shaped by popular culture, books, or movies? ⇒ Do you take the return of Christ seriously? How much is it a part of your thinking? How might you live differently if you knew Jesus was returning this year? ⇒ What would each of these responses look like in your life, practically speaking? Watching and Waiting Working and Witnessing Worshipping He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen. - Revelation 22:20-21 NIV 

Until Christ returns God means His people to be continually engaged in missions. And with that, the line of thinking that drives my sermons is this: We will never engage as God means us to engage in missions if we don't feel as God means us to feel about missions. And we will never feel as God means us to feel about missions if we don't think as God means us to think about missions. To say it in a slightly different way: right thinking leads to right feelings and right feelings lead to right action.

Christians hope in the better world that Jesus will inaugurate when he returns. What sustains our hope between now then? Until Christ returns, how do we keep our hope alive in all the troubles of this world, amid all its sickness, violence, and death? Pastor Luke teaches from Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 in "Rapture," part 4 of his 5-part series, "Brand-New Testament."

Until Christ returns, each one of us at some point will die and the reality of death casts a long dark shadow over all our pursuits. However, for the redeemed in Christ, we cry out, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). For the child of God, while death is not the end, its presence here and now should drive us to cherish and enjoy life while we can. 1. Death is unavoidable (vs. 1-3)2. Life can be enjoyable (vs. 4-10)3. Life can be unpredictable (vs. 11-18)Songs:Graves Into Gardens #7138219 by B Lake, C Brown, S Furtick & T Hammer2019 Maverick City Publishing Worldwide, Bethel Music PublishingWhat A Beautiful Name #7068424 by B Fielding & B Ligertwood2016 Hillsong Music PublishingResurrecting #7051507 by C Brown, M Brock, M Ntele, S Furtick & W Joye2015 © Be Essential Songs--------------------------------------------Love Well Change Lives Through ChristIt's the vision of Woodmen, led by Pastor Josh Lindstrom, in the Pikes Peak area of ColoradoFind more at https://woodmenvalley.org or download the Woodmen app at https://subsplash.com/woodmenvalleychapel/app —Connect with UsWebsite:https://woodmenvalley.org Woodmen Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/woodmen_valley_chapel/Woodmen Twitter:https://twitter.com/Welcome2WoodmenWoodmen Facebook Pages:Central https://www.facebook.com/WoodmenValleyChapel Heights https://www.facebook.com/WoodmenHeights Monument https://www.facebook.com/WoodmenMoument  Rockrimmon https://www.facebook.com/WoodmenRockrimmonSouthwest https://www.facebook.com/WoodmenSouthwest

It is difficult to see your children struggle. Paul looked upon Timothy as his spiritual son. He knew Timothy faced opposition and discouragement. As one of his last acts, he sent the younger leader these letters to encourage and equip him to face the task. Paul understood that the future of the church depended upon the next generation. He desired to pass on his wisdom and experience. As we reflect on these two letters, three major themes stand out. The first is that salvation is both our present reality and our future hope. Jesus has already achieved everything we need for the forgiveness of sins (1 Tim. 1:15–16; 2 Tim. 1:9–10). There is nothing we can add to what Christ has done (1 Tim. 2:5–6). However, the full implementation of Jesus’ victory over sin and Satan remains a future hope. The present is described as “the last days,” which are times of difficulty and strife (2 Tim. 3:1). Thus, Timothy (and we) should not be surprised if ministry involves suffering (2 Tim. 3:12). Even so, we have a glorious, future hope to anticipate. One day, Jesus will return and that hope should inspire and encourage us to persevere (1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1). Until Christ returns, the church has an important mission to accomplish. Most of the teaching about qualifications for church leaders, the role of men and women in church, and how to organize worship is designed to help the church be more effective in fulfilling its mission of proclaiming the gospel. Finally, the gospel should transform our lives, so that we live as a new creation! The key word for this change is “godliness” (1 Tim. 4:8). It is this transformed life that authenticates the gospel message. >> When we get discouraged, we should look back at what Christ has done, look forward to His return, and look around us to see changed lives. Praise God for who He is, for what He is doing, and for His imminent return.

Listen to the recording of this sermon on our website: https://www.casperwels.com/sermons/how-shall-we-live-while-waiting-for-the-full-revelation-of-christ/Until Christ returns we are to live in reverence of him, knowing we are redeemed by him, and we are to put our hope in him.Note: Full Revelation refers to the final revelation, the Last Day when Christ will no longer be hidden at all. Live being turned right-side up Live as redeemed children of God Live with your faith and hope in God

Become as I am!! In Christ ... Christ in you! 1- IN Christ   (Become as I am! … I am IN CHRIST.) How? (12) Why? (12c-14) Remember…..1- He was WEAK (13) 2- But they WELCOMED him (14) 3 theories What? (15-16) But now? ….. Contrasting motives (17-18)  Motherly pain (19-20) 2- Christ in you (Until Christ is formed in you!)  “Christ being formed in us is the same as our being formed in Christ. For we are born that we may be new creatures in him. And he, on the other hand, is born in us so that we may live his life.” (Calvin, John, John Calvin's Commentaries On St. Paul's Epistles To The Galatians And Ephesians, p86) Col 1:27-29   Christ IN me! Become like Paul who is IN CHRIST, free and not under the law. Become like Christ! … Christ IN you!

Our theme for 2020 is "Until Christ is formed in us." We will read through Galatians week by week and ask the Holy Spirit to form our community into the likeness of Jesus.

Until Christ is Formed Within You The post Until Christ is Formed Within You appeared first on Sierra Bible Church.

Until Christ returns, Christians will have to deal with sin in their ranks. In this text, Jesus teaches his disciples how to respond to sinful brothers and sisters. This sermon grapples with the tension between holding Christians accountable for sin and forgiving their sins. It calls us all to speak truth, pray for restoration, and love one another deeply.

Intro…Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 23 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism and I will be talking to you today about questions 59 and 61.Transition…This week, we have finally come to the “So what?” moment of the first half of the Catechism. So far we have learned a foundational understand of Christian truth and doctrine. We have worked our way through the Apostle’s Creed. We have learned about God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit.Today, we have come to the point where the Catechism says, “So what?” What does all of this mean to me? It’s detailed, it’s organized and it is profound; but what good does all of this Christian doctrine do for me?Lord’s Day Focus...Question 59: What good does it do you, however, to believe all this?Answer: In Christ I am right with God and heir to everlasting life.Last week, Heidelberg asked about how the doctrines of the Christian faith give comfort to our souls. This week it is asking, “Why does any of this matter?” and the answer has to do with one of the greatest and most important doctrines of our faith; the doctrine of Justification.Justification is defined as an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight.Let’s look at an instance of this from a popular New Testament parable…Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed1 thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."Here we see Jesus use this term justified and we need to ask ourselves what he means by it. In context does it mean that this man had earned forgiveness based on his righteousness, No! Quite the opposite, he is declared to be righteous and is granted right standing before God over and against a man who was, practically speaking, more righteous. When Jesus says that this man went to his home justified, rather than the other, he means that this man was at peace with God, without respect to his own personal righteousness.To justify means to make a legal pronouncement that the man in question is righteous before God and it is God himself that makes such a pronouncement. If you study this term very much at all you will read time and again that this is a legal/forensic[1] term and that it means the opposite of condemn. To condemn a man is to declare him evil and guilty of his crimes, but to justify means to declare a man righteous and innocent of all charges. In other words, when Jesus says that this man is justified, he is declaring the man cleared of any moral guilt and that he no longer deserves punishment for his sin.Since our sin is removed, there is no longer a barrier between us and God. We are ready to be reconciled to Him and that means everything. By faith in Christ we are now right with God!Question 58: How are you right with God?Answer: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.This answer is beautiful. This truth is the foundation upon which all of salvation stands. This answer, this truth, is the reason that why the work of getting the gospel right is so incredibly important.How are you right with God? It is not the result of any one of us having achieved perfection through the law. It is not the result of our having overcome our sin on our own. Being right with God is purely and completely a work of sheer grace, where the perfect righteousness of Christ is credited to our account by faith alone.Martin Luther famously stated that a true Christian is simul iustus et peccator, “at the same time, justified and a sinner.” The catechism is pointing this out when it says that even though my conscience accuses me of my unrighteousness, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ.Until Christ returns, we will remain sinful saints. On this side of heaven, we will not experience sinless perfection. But praise God, our salvation doesn’t depend on our sinless perfection. Our salvation is based on the sacrificial death of Christ in our place, which removes our guilt. Our justification is rooted in the perfect righteousness of Jesus that is granted to us who believe.2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.We have been given an alien righteousness, which is a phrase that theologians use to describe the fact that our righteousness is not our own, it comes from outside of us. Not from outer-space, but from Jesus.Question 61: Why do you say by that by faith alone you are right with God?Answer: It is not because of any value my faith has that God is pleased with me. Only Christ’s satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness make me right with God. And I can receive this righteousness and make it mine in no other way than by faith alone.The catechism is stressing the object of our faith, not just the presence of faith. In our culture today it is more appealing to have an ambiguous faith, an undefined faith; than it is to have a very specific faith. It is far more popular to be a spiritual person than it is to have a well-defined faith. But the faith that overcomes the world, the faith that alone saves, is a faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and risen Savior of the believing world.To believe in Jesus means that you embrace that He is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. He is God in human flesh. To believe in Jesus Christ means that you entrust your eternal destiny and your right standing before God entirely to Him. It means that you believe in His substitutionary death on the cross for your sins. You believe that He paid the debt to God that you owe.It is by faith alone because there is no other way to receive this. You can’t buy it, bargain for it, earn it, or steal it. It is to be received by the empty hands of faith. As needy sinners we bring nothing to the table but empty hands and when we walk away the thing that we cling to with all of our trust is not ourselves, but to Jesus’ blood and righteousness.Thanks for joining me today as I discuss the Heidelberg Catechism. I hope you’ll join me again next week as we look at Lord’s Day 24 together and discuss questions 62 and following.Conclusion…If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.Thanks for listening. [1] Forensic simply means that it is information used in and admissible in a court of law.

Until Christ transforms the way we think, we are unwittingly under the influence of delusion

There is no easy way to go through suffering. Until Christ comes back, this life is going to be difficult, some more than for others. In Exodus 6, God answers the question of suffering, saying it will end in His glory.

There is no easy way to go through suffering. Until Christ comes back, this life is going to be difficult, some more than for others. In Exodus 6, God answers the question of suffering, saying it will end in His glory.

...Until Christ is formed in YOU. Galatians 4BRAND YOUKey Scripture - Romans 8:1-111.) OFF BRANDSA quick synopsis of some off message branding and how people can loose their way.Are you a brand?SCOTOMA - a blind spot"“MOST PEOPLE, THEY DON’T WRITE THEIR STORY, THEY READ THEIR STORY, BECAUSETHEY NEVER UNDERSTOOD INTENTIONAL LIVING” John Maxwell2.) KNEW YOUGalatians 4 - The YOU you knew3.) NEW YOU2 Corinthians 5:17 - The new YOU you know TAKEAWAYSWhen you reflect on your relationship with Jesus do you ever think of it with the perspective that you represent him? You are HIS BRAND. He has bought you with a great price and is working with you so that His brand might be stamped on you. How does that kind of thinking work in your daily routine? 

Title: Do's and Don'ts Until Christ's Return Preacher: Blake Boylston Series: Life and Death and the Second Coming of Christ Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Jesus is the king of and for the poor. The poor are not limited to the materially poor. Until Christ is King of all the poor, we are not free nor does He truly reign.

Revelation chapters 2 & 3 are centered on letters written to the seven churches of Asia Minor during the first century. The question is how relevant are those letters for the church today? There were churches that were outside of God's will and needed to repent. There were churches that did well, but God still had some issues with them and there was a need to repent for those particular issues. There were churches that were doing well and were simply encouraged to "hold fast." Today we know and see churches that fall in all three categories. Until Christ returns we are being fitted for the crown of victory and of righteousness.

Pastor Adam Smith continues our series in Psalms with a look at Psalm 2. Until Christ's return, the nations will always rage; there will always be conflict and unease on earth. But God's holy justice does more than just convict us of sin: it gives us confidence and comfort in Christ.

Pastor Adam Smith continues our series in Psalms with a look at Psalm 2. Until Christ's return, the nations will always rage; there will always be conflict and unease on earth. But God's holy justice does more than just convict us of sin: it gives us confidence and comfort in Christ.

“Beyond the Blessing of Abraham”   (Part 1 of 2 parts)             B. Keith ChadwellGen 28:4 (Old Isaac speaking); “And give thee (Jacob) the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land.The blessing was passed down the righteous line to the one seedto receive the fullness of “the blessing of Abraham”; which was; Jesus.Therefore as we transition “the blessing of Abraham” we find it’s revelation by the Holy Spirit.   We find Paul, tells us in Galatians 3:14, clearly, why the blessing of Abraham was given: ·        Gal 3:14  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.     The “blessing of Abraham” was given, as Paul states in Galatian’s 3:13-14, “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”.  “The “promise of the Spirit” was given because God knew mankind would not and could not do a work in their own hearts to perfect themselves or make themselves righteous by nature.  Therefore, since Adam’s fall, mankind’s bondage to their Adamic sin nature would continue into perpetuity unless God could save them from this fate          So, through FAITH in Christ mankind would be able to receive the incorruptible Royal Seed of His Holy Spirit to be planted within their hearts (the land).  However, the incorruptible Royal SEED would only be the “earnest” of the full promis          Only after the Royal SEED would be planted could the process of Spiritual growth, unto full maturity in the Spirit begin, even unto the stature and measure of Christ. God’s ultimate goal was; to FULLY manifest His righteousness and His divine nature from within the hearts of His people to family, neighbors and nations.  In this way all the nations of the earth are to be blessed.The growth of the Royal Seed and the full manifestation of “His divine nature” in those who would accept His offer of the promise of the Spirit, would not be an event but rather; a process.  So, the Royal SEED had to be received by FAITH in Jesus and what He had done.  Then, since the Holy Spirit was the only one who could make this happen, the Holy Spirit would, subsequently need to be allowed to, progressively work in believers to change their hearts until the full promise would be manifest. That would be Christ, fully formed in us. Or…“Christ in us; the hope of glory”. FAITH is the substance of “the full promise” that ishoped for. The hope being that; the Royal SEED when planted in the land (heart) was to grow to “the fullnessof the promise of the Spirit”.   So, because we have this hope of the promise and FAITH that God will make this happen, in His time, God counts this FAITH as righteousness in the meanwhile.  This is  the ONLY hope for the descendants of Adam to  ever fully manifest God’s divine nature, from their hearts.  For we are; “the righteousness of God”…but only by FAITH in what CHRIST is doing in us, until the full promise is, FULLY manifest, in fact.       What can we expect?  ·        Short of joining “that great cloud of witnesses” and waiting for another generation of Christians to catch the “vision” of the fullness of “the Promise, what are we to do now? One of the analogy’s that holds the answer in the Old Testament, is the story of Abraham and Sarah and God’s promise of a child, which is well known.  However, this natural analogy’s application to the Spiritual may reveal more to Christians than we might have thought.Abraham and Sarah struggled with their promiseof the child: Isaac (the child of the Spirit).   In the natural it seemed impossible that Sarah could even conceive in her “old age” let alone give birth to this child, promised by God. So, they relied on works of their own flesh which produced; “Ishmael” (the child of the flesh).We, like Abraham and Sarah, have come to rely on "Flesh" to manifest what we could believe for of  “the promise, in lieu of “Faith”. Therefore, for the most part, in one way or another; we Christians have produced an “Ishmael” (the child of the flesh).  This “Ishmael” is the religious product of the seed we have planted. It looks like the real deal, at first, but like “the tares” planted in the parable, it will not produce the harvest of “the Royal SEED”.  We can’t circumvent the law of the harvest; “you reap what you sow”.Look at our Pattern Son, for He was the firstborn of many brethren who were to follow Him and have the Spirit fully formed in them, also. Jesus was born of the Spirit and of the flesh.  Likewise, we who are born of flesh and blood and follow after Him must be “Born again”.  Not of the corruptible seed of Adam, the seed of the flesh, (been there, done that) but rather of incorruptible SEED.  That is; of the Royal Seed of the Spirit of promise.  Born again, of “incorruptible SEED; then to grow and develop “until Christ is formed in us”.·        Mar 4:26-27 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how. ·        John 12:24-25Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. ·        Hebrews 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Like a farmer planting SEED in “the land”; first the Royal Incorruptible SEED is planted, then begins a progressive work by the Holy Spirit working in us. The fullness of our promise is NOT accomplished by any works of our doing right things or trying to think right thoughts through our own efforts.  It is His Royal Seed, we are His land, and It is His work in us.  His “Beulah land”, as it were, It is His “grace” or “divine influence on our hearts” (the land within us). We are instructed to just “REST” and have faith in HIM to do this work in us, UNTILit is completed.  Until Christ is formed in us and His divine nature is always manifest, from our hearts.  Then…”when He shall appear, we SHALL be like Him”. It is the law of the harvest, “you reap what you sow”.Works of the flesh to help God to manifest the fullness of His “promise” …won’t.   The promise of the fullness of the Spirit was and is “yea and amen” but as with the promise to Abraham and Sahah, only through the work of the Spirit. As then, so it is now; it requires FAITH and obedience.  Then, in God’s time, by His work, NOT OURS, the full promisewill be manifest.“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.  For which cause I also suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard my deposit until that Day.  Hold fast a pattern of sound words which you heard from me, in faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good Deposit given through the Holy Spirit indwelling in us.”     This concludes part 1 of a 2 part series titled; “Beyond the Blessing of Abraham”.Both parts are posted, in full, on the Books/teachings page of the High Country Ministry website; Link to:  “Beyond the Blessing of Abraham, part 2”www.highcountryministry.com~ ~ ~

In this passage, Paul reminds the Galatian believers of who they were under the Law, as well as who they now are in Christ. Until Christ came, they were held captive under the Law, which showed them that they were justly condemned. In Christ, they had been delivered from the bondage of the Law, being adopted into God's family through faith. As believers, do we realize what it means to be a child and heir of the Most High God?

Until Christ returns, our life lived is to be a constant spiritual growth process. So, in Jesus’ name press on!

"Until Christ is Formed in You"The heart of a Pastor as shown by Paul's words to the Galatian church

Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Galatians 4:12-20 and the goal of the gospel ministry that seeks conformity to the likeness of Jesus Christ, and the pains related to the work. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - One of my favorite stories when I was a child growing up, and it actually became more of a favorite as I began my life as an adult working, was the story of the shoemaker and the elves. You remember that story about this guy who was an elderly guy, poor shoemaker, and he would work all day just barely scraping out a living. And at one point, he went to bed and some elves came into his workshop and they had compassion on him and loved him. I don't know what it was that he did to gain their affection and their loyalty, but they finished a set of shoes that he had been working on and maybe some others as well. I don't remember the details of the story but I know this, he comes in the next morning and all of these shoes are assembled and ready with incredible workmanship and he sells them at a great profit. And he thinks this is incredible, and the same things keeps happening to him. There was a point in my life when I wanted that to happen to me. Why can't it be that the projects that I just leave would be done overnight. Have you ever had that thought? It's like where are the elves? To come in and do this work for me, I would love that. Well, I was thinking about all of that in reference to a statement made by a Puritan pastor some years ago, he said the work of a pastor is different than that of other tradesmen. When a tradesmen or craftsman leaves his project for the night and goes to bed he wakes up the next morning and finds it in the exact same state in which he left it and he continues on. So you take a cabinet maker for example, he's working on a cabinet, he does some elaborate carvings and some floral pattern, all that. The day ends, he goes to sleep and there's no elves in the story but the good thing is it's right where he left it and he picks up his tools and goes on with his work. But it is not so with the pastor. No, actually when the pastor leaves his work and goes away, immediately Satan sends his demons to start to deconstruct all the things he's been working on. The world, the flesh and the devil are constantly un-working the work of the ministry of the word. It's going on all the time and so he doesn't find the work in the same place where he left it; it's actually more like building a sand castle sometimes, and the waves come in and he comes and finds a smooth nub where he was working, and he picks up his tools and begins to work again. And you know why, it's because of the relentless spiritual warfare that we are engaged in all the time. We have invisible enemies that are assaulting our souls. Now, that's only the negative or maybe pessimistic side, illustrated in the bible by a parable that Jesus told, the parable of the wheat and the weeds or commonly known as the wheat and the tares. You remember how a farmer sowed good seed in his field but at night while everyone was sleeping an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away, it's the same image there. Now, there's another parable that Jesus told so beautifully of a seed planted in the soil and whether he's awake or asleep, whatever he's doing it grows. And so not only is Satan and his demons at work but God is sovereignly at work too, even apart from or beyond the work of the pastor. I'm only kind of focusing on half of the equation today, but this is the very issue the Apostle Paul is struggling with here in the text that's in front of us here. He came to Galatia and he preached the gospel, he preached it purely, he preached it powerfully, by the power of the spirit he planted churches in Galatia and then he left. And then Satan sent some false apostles, some false missionaries, false teachers to start to deconstruct all of the good work that he had done. And Paul is very aware of this kind of thing going on as a matter of fact, very aware. In Thessalonians he's very anxious about the churches that they planted there and very anxious until a good report comes from Timothy that they're still walking with the Jesus, and he's relieved and he says, "I can't even tell you all the joy I have in my heart for this good report." In 2 Corinthians, when he's listing all of the things that brings him sorrow and suffering in his life, and so many physical assaults and being beaten with rods and being lashed and shipwrecked and all that. The capstone of all of his misery is, on top of all of this is the constant anxiety I have for the churches of Christ. That they're constantly being assaulted, they're being tempted and I'm like burning with them as I'm concerned about their souls. And do you see that in the text we're looking at today, do you see the anguish he has. And it's very clear at the very end, he says, "I'm perplexed over you," "I'm anxious over you, I'm concerned about you." It's an anguish that's come on him. By the way, if we can just speak very sweetly, and powerfully and positively here about this man, this Paul. There was a time in which he was filled with, seething with murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, hated them. How far has the sovereign grace of God taken this man? All he wants is Christ to be formed in them, that's all he cares about. Do you see the transformation that the sovereign grace of God can work in the human heart? But he is anguished over them and he's concerned over them and he's distressed and he is in a long line of God's messengers who have been in this exact same position. How anguished was Moses over the status of Israel during the time of the golden calf, with what anguished prayer did he pray for the Jewish nation at that time. Or think about Elijah just pleading with the people to make a decision between Yahweh and Baal on the top of Mount Carmel. Pleading with them and yearning that they would come and believe in the true God. Or think about Isaiah and all of his writings pouring out his passion and his love for the people that they would repent from their sins and stop following the Baals and the false gods. Jeremiah the weeping prophet, he was the one who metaphorically, he's the one that turned off the lights after Jerusalem was empty. And the book of Lamentations, how desolate lies the city once so full of people. And he was pleading with them and yearning for them, and why? Why all of this? Why? Because of the very thing we sang a few moments ago; "prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart Lord take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above." Our hearts are prone to wander. The people of God can be doing really well in January and not very well in February. Some have likened it to herding cats, Not trying to be insulting but that's what it feels like sometimes, because of the instability of the work that's going on here there's just a constant concern over the flock. And so we are able to look at some of these themes, we are able to look at the depths of Paul's concern over the Galatian churches here in this text today and the nature of true gospel ministry. And there's so much passion in this text and it doesn't just unfold in a kind of a logical orderly way. He's so filled with anxiety and so filled with concern for them and he is openly perplexed over you. So we're not looking for a kind of a consecutive unfolding here. I. The Goal of Gospel Ministry: “Until Christ is Formed in You” What I'm going to do is go to the end, the goal of true gospel ministry right at the beginning. And so I'm going to draw out themes not necessarily right in the order of the text, we're going to draw out themes so we can try to understand this. The goal of gospel ministry is in verse 19, "Until Christ is formed in you." Do you see that? That's really what he wants to see happen in these Galatians. Until Christ is formed in you. Verse 19, "My dear children for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you." So this is the overarching goal of gospel ministry: total conformity to Jesus Christ. That's what we're looking for, that's the goal of the church in the lives of the people that we minister to. Now, our natural state, naturally apart from Christ, described in many places what Titus 3:3, at one time it says, "We are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures, we lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." That's where we start, that's us in Satan's dark kingdom but Paul says hearing Galatians through the gospel ministry, the ministry of Jesus Christ we're set free from all that. How glorious is that news? "This is the overarching goal of gospel ministry: total conformity to Jesus Christ." Look again in verses 7-8 eight of the same chapter, Galatians 4:7-8, "So you are no longer a slave but a son." Oh, that's the glorious good news of the gospel, you're not enslaved anymore to passions and pleasures and all that, not enslaved to sin anymore. You are now adopted sons and daughters of the Living God. So you are no longer a slave but a son and since you are a son, God has also made you an heir. Formerly, verse 8, "When you did not know God you were slaves to those who by nature are not God's." So you are enslaved to demonic forces and to false doctrines and all that, the gospel has set you free, how beautiful is that. And so he came to preach the gospel and having been rejected in other places, persecuted in other places, and suffering greatly. This was I think the first time he was in anguish of childbirth over them. He uses the word again, the first time just to stay on the gospel road, just to even come to you, it was anguish for me, because there was so much persecution, so much satanic opposition, but I persevered and I came to your towns and I preached the gospel and we wrestled in prayer over you. And we preached faithfully and so we were in the pains of childbirth that first time, so that you could come to faith in Christ. Also is a very difficult time Paul says, "It was because of an illness, [verse 13] that I first preach the gospel to you." So these things could have caused Paul to give up in the preaching of the gospel. Instead he soldiered on and he got an amazing result. The Galatians heard and believed the gospel, and they received the outpoured gift of the Holy Spirit and a church was planted, and churches were planted in Galatia. But that was the first time, now he's in the pains of childbirth over them for a second time. And the goal is he says, until Christ is formed in them. The parallel verse that teaches this as the goal of the gospel ministry is in Romans 8:29, and there it says, "For those God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, so that He might be the first born among many brothers." That's the goal of everything God is doing, that's the goal of the predestination, that's the goal of everything that we who are originally created in the image and likeness of God but that was marred and so severely damaged by sin, that we would be perfectly conformed in every way to the likeness of Jesus Christ. That's the goal of the gospel, that's the goal of this ministry here, and Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3), so we would be beautifully and perfectly conform to God himself, as he originally intended when he created us. Transformed internally, transformed from our hearts. Ephesians 4:24, "Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." And even physically, we'd be conformed physically. So that it says in 1 Corinthians 15:49, "Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [Adam] so we shall also bear the likeness of the man from heaven," that's Christ. We're going to be just like him in our resurrection bodies. That's the work that God is doing in the gospel. until Christ is formed in you and you are totally conformed in every way to Christ. That's what we're trying for. Now, this happens by the inner working of the Holy Spirit. A radical change of the individual from the inside out, but ongoing shepherding is needed because our salvation comes to us in stages. Comes to us in stages, we don't get it all at once. Now, we have to be clear. Justification, which we have been focusing on here in Galatians does not come in stages, that's instantaneously. From darkness to light, from dead to alive. That's justification, but our salvation is bigger than justification. There's more to it and so the Lord is working in us to transform us. It comes to us in stages and Paul says, "Now I've got to be in the anguish of childbirth again, until Christ is formed in you." Because they have regressed in their sanctification. They have drawn back away from a healthy doctrine and a healthy lifestyle. And that's the essence of pastoral ministry. Paul has to go back to basics with them, as though they need to born again. It's weird, it's not the way it was meant to be, I don't need to be again in childbirth... No, no woman ever goes through childbirth twice. Why should I have to do this? Why do I have to go through this with you again as though you don't even know the gospel. How could this be? Step by step in pastoral ministry, we want to see people conform to Jesus. We want to see their hearts conformed. We want to see their affections conformed. We want them to love what Christ loves and hate what Christ hates. And we want them to yearn after the things that Christ is yearning after. We want people to make choices, use their will the way that Christ did, not my will but yours be done, oh Father. We want our wills conformed to that of Jesus Christ. We want our thought life, we want to have this mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2:5. We want to think like Jesus, have the same attitude and we want an emotional healthy emotional life like Jesus had. We want to rejoice over what causes him to rejoice and mourn over those things that grieve him. That's what we want. That's what Christ is formed in you means. That's the goal of pastoral ministry. Well, how does this happen? II. The Method of Gospel Ministry: Speaking and Living the Truth Secondly, the method of gospel ministry is speaking and living the truth. Proclamation of the truth, the teaching of the truth, coupled with a living out of it by role modeling and exampling, that's the essence of it. We would add also prayer, an accessory prayer, but look what He says in verse 12, "I plead with you brothers. Become like me for I became like you." We have here in this text, this whole section, a combination of words and actions. We have pleading, he's pleading with them, that's words. Also we have the teaching ministry we've seen so plainly in Galatians 1, 2, and 3, especially, 3, in which he lays out so clearly from the scriptures justification by faith alone, faith in Jesus alone, apart from work. He's done all this teaching. That's the essence of this work, this pastoral ministry work, but also there's this role modeling, become like me. So imitate me, that's the essence. Look at teaching as it's on display here in this book of Galatians. Strong emphasis on teaching the truth. It's also on display in this passage. Look at verse 16, "Have I now become your enemy," he says, "by telling you the truth?" Truth-telling is of the essence of pastoral ministry. It's our ministry. It's our concern as pastors, as shepherds to tell the truth coming from scriptures, scriptural truth. So the truth is doctrinal truth and spoken passionately and powerfully and it's applied directly to people's lives, especially key moments when they need to hear the truth. If you look back at Galatians 2:14, for example, he does this. He takes the truth and applies it directly at a key moment. In Galatians 2:14, he says, "When I saw that they were not acting or living in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all…" You remember all that? Peter was shrinking back from table fellowship with the Gentiles because of the dietary regulations, and Paul steps in there and he just confronts them and says, "You're not living in line with the truth that you've learned. We're free from the dietary regulations. We should be living and eating together, there's no Jew-Gentile distinction anymore. So of the essence of this pastoral ministry is teaching the word of God. The willingness to speak the truth even if it hurts. Even if it's somewhat temporarily seems to damage the relationship. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? Being willing to do that, to risk that. To risk a feeling, an odd feeling of alienation with somebody because your telling them the truth. Martin Luther, put it clearly in terms of preaching. He said, "You should always preach in such a way that when you get done, people will either hate you or hate their sins." Well look, that's a heavy burden to lay on any individual. Which are you, do you hate your sin or do you hate me? But that's of the essence of pastor ministry, tell the truth in the ways that it needs to be said. Truly wise people made wise by the Spirit, made wise by the gospel, want to hear the truth. They want to hear the truth told, we want to hear the truth. Psalm 141:5, "Let a righteous man strike me, it is a kindness. Let him rebuke me, it is oil on my head." We know in the book of Proverbs one of the big differences between the wise man and the fool is what happens at the moment of rebuke or correction. The wise man drinks it in like water and grows and changes, but the fool hardens his heart and turns away and is not interested in that. Now, in ministry and the history and redemptive history again and again we've seen how much people yearn for candy-coated lies. Happened again and again. Clear example of this is wicked king Ahab, remember when he's going off to fight at Ramoth-Gilead? And he's got all of these "yes" men around him. His false prophets were dancing and jumping and saying things about how he's going to win this battle. And he's got godly king Jehoshaphat out there with him, remember? He (Jehoshaphat) shouldn't have been there. Clearly he shouldn't have been there. It's a different issue for another time but here's there and his going to go out to fight alongside the wicked king Ahab. And Jehoshaphat is troubled in his spirit and says, "Isn't there a prophet of the Lord here? Can we find somebody who'll speak for the Lord?" He said, "Actually there is one," said King Ahab, "there is one who prophesize for the Lord, but I hate him because he always says bad things about me. Never good." And Jehoshaphat said the King should not say that. A pretty mild rebuke at that point. Micaiah, son of Imlah. It's just an amazing story but he wants a candy-coated lie, which actually interestingly, Micaiah gives him right at the beginning. I think he says it sarcastically, "Go and conquer and win. Have a good time." He's like, "Well that's what all the prophets are saying, but I don't think that's what you really mean. What do you really mean?", "Well I'll tell you what I mean. You're going to die at that battle. That's what's going to happen."; "See, I told you, he always says bad things about me." It just points how we in our sin, yearn for the candy-coated lie. Isaiah isolated this in Isaiah 30:9-11. These are some of those powerful verses on this tenancy that we have. Isaiah 30:9-11, it says, "These are rebellious people. Deceitful children. Children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instruction. They say to the seers, see no more visions. And to the prophets give us no more visions of what is right. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path and stop confronting us with the Holy One of God." This is what the people yearn for: Candy-coated truths. But gospel ministry is telling biblical truth even if it hurts. Can I actually say gospel ministry is telling biblical truth, especially when it hurts, because that's the point where the Spirit is dealing with people. That's where the conviction is coming. That's where these stings come. That's where the cuts are. You ever had some cuts on your finger and you've been peeling an orange or grapefruit or something like that, has that ever happened to you? And it's like wow, the citric acid gets in those cuts and it really stings. But that pain is telling you, "There's some cuts there." All right? "This is what the people yearn for: Candy-coated truths. But gospel ministry is telling biblical truth even if it hurts. ... That's where the conviction is coming." And so it is sin that leaves us damaged and then the Word comes and it stings where it hurts. It stings there and that's where the sin is. And so gospel ministry is telling biblical truth even if it hurts, perhaps especially when it hurts. We also have role modeling too in verse 12, "I plead with you brothers become like me for I became like you." This is a big theme in the Apostle Paul isn't it? "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1. Probably the clearest time he ever said that. This is as bold a statement as any discipler will ever make to a disciple, or any pastor will ever make to anybody, is in Philippians 4. Listen to this. Philippians 4:9, "Whatever you have learned or receive or heard from me [as doctrine] or seen in me — put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you." Wow! Imitate me completely, doctrinally and lifestyle. So that's how it's done, that's how ministry is done. This is the method of gospel ministries. Speaking the truth and modeling and living out the truth. III. The Matrix of Gospel Ministry: Loving Relationship The matrix of gospel ministry is loving relationship or you could say loving relationships, but I want to say especially between the individual and Christ and then horizontally between the individual and another individual. All of that speaking, all of that truth telling must be done in the matrix of a loving relationship. Must be done. It says in Ephesians 4:15, "Instead speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head and His Christ Jesus." Speaking the truth in love. It needs to be said with gentleness, with tenderness through prayer in the matrix of a committed relationship. We genuinely love each other. In some sense I would say we've earned the right to say hard things in each other's lives. Not everybody can do it equally in a local church. A lot of it comes from a developed friendship and relationship that happens because there's reciprocity. I know you love me. I know you care about me and therefore I can hear this from you. So there's a context of it. "By this will all men know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another." John 13:35. Paul here in this text goes over the history of their relationship, do you see it? Very painful for him to look back. He says, "That was then, remember how it used to be? Remember how we were friends? When I first came remember how you were with me? It's so different now." Look at the verses 12-16. He said, "I plead with you, brothers, become like me for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. As you know it was because of an illness that I first reached preached the gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?" Now, there is a lot in those verses, but what I want you to notice is how relational they are. How relational, he's got this close relationship with them and he's hurt by this. I think in chapters 1, 2, and 3, especially chapter 3, it is just like a dispassionate dispenser of truth. Just saying how it is in the old testament and all that, but here he just shows his heart. He says, "This hurts me. It's hurtful that this has happened." He loves them, he calls them brothers and he pleads with them. It's a passionate appeal. And he writes, "Become like me for I became like you." What does that mean? Well, I don't know exactly what it means but I think it has to do with missionary strategy, and he says very plainly in 1 Corinthians 9:21-22, talks about missionary strategy, he says, "To those not having the law," those were Gentiles, "to those not having law I became like one not having the law, so as to win those not having the law." "So I changed my mannerisms, my dress, my eating habits and things. I became like you so I could win you to Christ. But now I want you to become like me in my gospel freedom. I want you to imitate how free I am from legalism. I want you to become like me as I walk in this free path." That's what he's saying to them. He reminds them of the circumstances of how he first came there, he reminds them of his illness. This shows us how God can use suffering to divert the paths of missionaries and messengers and he just does incredible things providentially. God's moving pieces on the chess board in ways we can't even imagine. He'll use circumstances. The implication of this statement is, "I wouldn't have even come to you if I hadn't gotten sick." Sometimes we're praying for health and all that, look, that's good, it's good to pray for that but, God just uses these things to orchestrate what he wants done. And he wanted Paul in Galatia to preach the gospel and establish his churches, so he made him sick. There goes your health and wealth right there. He made him sick. He orchestrated his illness to get him there. And he focuses on the relationship he had in those days, how much they loved him. Apparently, his trial, his illness was not so much that he couldn't preach or minister. I think the ministry's going on while they care for him in his sickness is going on. And so that's why they welcomed him with such joy as if he were an angel from God. As if he were a messenger from heaven. As if he were Jesus Christ himself. All that doesn't make much sense except that Paul was preaching the gospel to them, and they were loving what he was saying and they were excited to care for him. Very much like the Philippian jailer, you remember that? Philippian jailer, who almost killed himself? Paul and Silas cry out, "Don't harm yourself, we're all here." And then he rushes in trembling, calling for lights, trembling, brings him out and says, "What must I do to be saved?" "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household." And so that very hour he believed and then immediately after that, the jailer cared for Paul and Silas' wounds and set a meal in front of them. That's powerful because his heart had been changed and he cared about them. He was every bit as in need of medical care and food before that but the guy wasn't converted yet. Once he was converted, suddenly he has a heart of love and affection for the messenger of the gospel. I think that's what's happening, these folks cared for them. Even though it was a trial to them and they were tempted to despise him. There were certain aspects of medical care that are disgusting in some ways. It could have be loathsome to you. The Greek word there is spat out. Just, Ugh! There's gross parts of it. I was reading an account from William Bradford, of what the first winter was like when the pilgrims settled at Plymouth and many, many, many of them got sick, many died. And Bradford talked about the few handful of people at any given time, six or seven of them at any given time, who are healthy enough to care for others. And this is what he writes, "Who to their great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains, night or day, but with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, prepared their meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; the sick people. In a word, did all the homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named, and they did all of this willingly and cheerfully without any grudging in the lead showing here and there true love unto their friends and brethren. I get the same feeling here with the Galatians. They were caring for Paul with a cheerful heart because they were so delighted in the relationship. But now all of that was gone. Look at verse 15, "What has happened to all your joy. I can testify that if you could have done so, you would've torn out your eyes and given them to me." Now, I think verse 15 is a very significant statement. "What has happened to all your joy?" Can I just pause for a moment and talk about joy in the Christian life? Okay? Joy in the Christian life is a fragile barometer of spiritual health. Fragile barometer of spiritual health. This book, is about legalism. You got to obey the Law of Moses in order to be saved. Legalism destroys joy in Christ. Destroys it. The people who are legalistic, they're not joyful. They're trying to earn it all the time, there's no joy. Can I go the other side and say license destroys joy, in the Christian life. If you're just indulging the flesh, indulging the sin nature, your joy is going to go. I would say look to your joy. There are other things that can hurt joy. We'll talk about them at the end of the sermon, but these extremes are joy killers. And so, I look on joy as (I've used this illustration before, so bear with me if you've heard it) the canary in a coal mine of the Christian life. Coal miners used to bring these little birds in cages into the tunnels where they were carving out a very difficult existence, down in the depths of the earth. Down there, there were a lot of dangers but one of them are just invisible fumes like carbon monoxide and other things you couldn't even see or smell... They're odorless, colorless and deadly dangerous. What these coal miners would do, it would be bring these little birds in cages, and if the birds were singing and just doing normal bird things, whatever they are. But just chirping, singing, everything is fine and so you would look up occasionally at how's the bird doing. But if that bird was getting woozier or even worse, down at the bottom of the cage, you need to get out of there fast, because you're in trouble. I guess what I'm saying is, how's your joy in Christ? Is your life characterized by joy, the joy of your salvation? I'll return to this theme at the end but that's what he's saying, what's happened to all your joy? Joy with Christ? Joy with me? Just joy in general. What's happened? In the next chapter in Galatians 5:15, he gives a glimpse on how they're doing with each other. He says if you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other. They're not getting along. They're bickering with each other and all that. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. We'll talk about that next chapter as well. The Holy Spirit produces joy in the Christian life. Now, I want to do another side just because I think it's worth mentioning, the nature of Paul's illness. Paul says a very strange thing here in this verse 15. He says, "I can testify that if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me." Now, I don't know what that means. That seems a bit odd. Now, it might be just a simple expression that we don't use anymore, but we might use something like it, like I'd give my right arm for… Very few would actually see it through, it's like "Okay, it's a deal." "Wait, I'm not sure about that. Not sure." But I think it could be something like that, I would give my eyes if you could just be healthy. But some commentator say it probably just has to do with the nature of Paul's illness, it had to do with his eyes. That he had trouble seeing. At the end of the Book of Galatians, he says, see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hands. This is how I always write. He frequently dictated his letters through secretaries. Trivia question, who actually wrote the Book of Romans? Look it up. I know the answer, you guys can look it up. Tell me later. Who actually wrote it? It wasn't Paul, it's his secretary who slipped his name in there in Roman 16. We'll meet him in heaven. But Paul, when he was on the Damascus Road was blinded, literally blinded by the glory of the resurrected Christ. And then when Ananias laid hands on him something like scale fell from his eyes when he was baptized and then regained his sight. But some commentators wonder if he struggled with his eyesight for the rest of his life. I don't know. But it's just an interesting expression he says, "You would've given your eyes for me." But now, the relationship has changed. Everything has changed and he says in verse 16, "Have I know become your enemy by telling you the truth." This is such a tragic display of the kinds of things that happen in gospel ministry. Paul was willing to speak strongly, even somewhat harshly to the Galatians to try to reclaim them from this heresy. To wake them up from the danger of combining the gospel of Jesus Christ with the Law of Moses thinking you need them both to be saved. He says in Galatians 1: 6-7, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and returning to a different gospel, which is no gospel at all." He's shocked at them or even more pointedly how about Galatians 3? 1-3. So there he says, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" Oh, now Paul, that's not nice. That's not nice. He says in verse 3 again, Galatians 3:3, "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now perfected by the flesh. Have you learned so much for nothing?" He's really coming on strong here. Is there a time that that's needed? Yes there is. It actually is. Now people have the tendency to love the preacher when he says the things that they want to hear. Says in 2 Timothy 4:3, "The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine." Not going to put up with it anymore. Instead to soothe their own desires they will gather around them a large number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Well, this is exactly how the Judaizers were. They were just tickling the ears of the Galatians in some ways. Look at verses 17-18, "Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us so that you may be zealous for them. It's fine to be zealous provided the purpose is good and to be so always, not just when I am with you." The Judaizers talk like they really care about you. These one that are teaching this legalistic gospel. They're acting like they really care about you but they don't care about you. They were fawning over the Galatians so that the Galatians would fawn over them. You know the mutual admiration society, giving each other compliments, this kind of thing, back and forth. That's what that works righteousness tends to do. It makes you proud and you want to hear some compliments coming back and you know there's human nature to it so you feed some compliments out. Get the thing going like that. They're zealous for you to win you over so that you'll be zealous for them. That's what he's saying. The use of flattery. Paul's not a flatterer. Flattery doesn't help anybody. Encouragement helps people. I think our church should be characterized by encouragement. Amen? Let's encourage one another. Let's not flatter one another. False teachers frequently use flattery. Romans 16:18, speaking of a false teachers there, it says, "For such people are not serving our Lord Christ but their own appetites by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." Be very careful about teachers, preachers, disciplers who just pander to your ego and tell you the things you want to hear. "Flattery doesn't help anybody. Encouragement helps people.... Be very careful about teachers, preachers, disciplers who just pander to your ego and tell you the things you want to hear." IV. The Anguish of Gospel Ministry: Spiritual Drift I always see the anguish of gospel ministry and that's the spiritual drift. Look at verses 19-20. "My dear children, he says, for whom I am again in the pains of child birth until Christ is formed in you. How I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I am perplexed about you." This is the anguish of Paul, he reveals it fully here at the end. He's hurt by what they've done and he speaks almost like a mother. He says in 1 Thessalonians 2 that you know that we were like a mother caring for you and encouraging you and pouring ourselves, sharing ourselves with you. We're like a mother. Here, he's like a woman in labor. Now, I know you women could say, "Paul, what do you know about being a woman in labor?" And you'd be right. But, he's observed it at least. He knows, gee, it must be painful, something like that. I think that's the best a husband can do. Well, no actually he can do a lot more than that, a lot more. Different topic, different day. But the apostle Paul says, "Like that I'm wrestling and struggling, I'm laboring over you. I care about you. It's painful." And he calls them my little children. There's a tender affection here. Diminutive in the Greek. He just loves them, says little children. Cares about them. And it's unnatural for me to have to go through this again, this anguish of child birth and the spiritual drift he says, verse 20, "How I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I am perplexed about you." I'm at my wits end. I don't know what else I can say to you. V. Application All right, what is the application or what are some applications we can take from this text. First, look in the mirror of the text and bigger look in the mirror of Galatians and ask this one question: Has Christ been formed in me? Has Christ been formed in me? Am I born again? Am I alive spiritually? Have my sins been forgiven through faith in Christ crucified and resurrected? Am I a Christian? That's the most important thing. Nothing can be done towards sanctification without first justification. You have to first come to faith in Christ. As Jesus said, "This is the work of God that you believe in the one that he has sent." Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Trust in him and ask, has Christ been formed in me? Secondly, just to speak to the elders. I've been speaking about pastoral ministry here now. I want to just say a word to you few men who are elders in this church. Embrace this kind of suffering and shepherding in the ministry toward the flock. You know that were doing this. This is a lot of what we are trying to do on Monday evenings when we meet together. But let's embrace it, let's understand that the flock will need to be overseen until the Lord returns. This is an ongoing work we're going to need to keep doing this and remember the goal till Christ is formed in all of the members of this church. That is as one writer put it, and infinite journey, internal journey that just keeps going on and on. Just keeps going on and on, all right. Embrace the responsibility that we have to this, that we need to shepherd the flock and that this is going to be an ongoing work. The time is now for speaking the truth in love and not being flatterers and not saying what people want to hear. Let's encourage one another and build one another up as shepherds, but also shepherd the flock. And let's develop the kind of heart of compassion that we see in Paul here. Do you see the passion Paul has for the flock? He didn't shed his blood for them but boy he loves them. Anguish, child birth, and all that. Let's not anticipate that kind of pastoral ministry is going to be easy. Be willing to make the difficult phone call. Have the difficult face to face meeting. Say the difficult words. Now, of course let's say them in love with gentleness. He's going to say, "If anyone's in trouble," Galatians 6, "drifting away. You who are spiritual should restore him how?" Gently. Gently. Okay, you can do as much damage trying to restore harshly. Okay, gently. Now let me speak to the church. Yearn for this kind of elder-type ministry in your life. For the rest of your life, yearn for this. Say, "I want to be overseen by a godly men, who will shepherd my soul and pray for me and teach me the truth and organize a church that will care about me. I want this. I want Christ fully formed in me. I want to see it happening to all of my brothers and sisters that are here. I yearn for this kind of ministry." Yearn for it. Don't be offended at elder ministry that does tell you the truth. Look at verse 16 again, "Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?" That should never happen. If someone is bringing a hard message to you, ask "Is it true? Is it biblical?" Don't get offended. Don't shoot the messenger. But say, "I want truth telling. I don't want flattery. I want the oil on my head of an honest rebuke if that's what I need. I want someone to tell me the truth." And so cherish a body of elders who is willing to grieve over the wandering sheep of the flock. Pray for them. Ask God to protect this kind of ministry at FBC. Remember in 2 Timothy 4:3 it says, "People will gather around themselves." It's really the congregation that's responsible for the kind of elder-ing and shepherding it gets. If you yearn for this and pray for it and delight in it, you'll have it. If you start to turn in your hearts, you're going to lose it. Give it a number, 5, 10 years you won't have it anymore. Yearn for this. Fourth, let's embrace the responsibility we have as members of this church to watch over one another in brotherly love. This is in our church covenant. We've promised to do this for each other. We will watch over one another in brotherly love. It's too big a job for the elders. It really is. Number one thing we can do is to teach all of you to do it for yourselves. And we'll do some of it, we do a lot of it. We make a lot of phone calls. We have a lot of meetings with people. We interact with folks. We do that but there's just too many people. And so let's embrace the responsibility we have to notice how things are going in each other's lives. Let's notice that it's been a while since so and so was in BFL or it's been a while since so and so was at home fellowship. Let's notice, let's pick up the phone and make the phone call. I am so grieved at hearing about, "Well no one ever called. No one cared, I never heard anything." Grieved by that. Now, there's two sides to that equation I know. But for us as a community, let's not let that happen. Let's be attentive to the people around us. We're going to watch over one another in brotherly love. Everyone here is assaulted by the world, the flesh, and the devil every day. And Satan the joy thief is going to come after your joy. He's going to come, "The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy," Jesus came "that you may have life and have it abundantly." We need to care about each other's joy. Are you joyful in Christ? Are things going well for you? Let's embrace that. Let's notice. Let's be a real community for each other. Don't take this and just run and start nailing each other, okay? Telling each other what you think of each other's clothes, "I never have had the chance until now to tell you what I really think about that outfit." Look, friends, that's not what we're doing here. We want to speak the truth in love but let's care about each other. Let's be a real community. Let me get specific. Can I urge you again, as I have many times in the past, to resume or continue, whatever verb's best, praying through the church phone list every month. Pray through, look at the names. Pray for them. Ask yourself as you're praying, "How is this person doing as far as I'm concerned?" In many cases, you'll be "I don't know." But in some cases, you'll be an early warning system to see someone that's starting to drift away. Have their attendance patterns changed? They used to be doing X and now it's different. Let me zero in for a minute on home fellowship. I am very concerned when someone was involved in home fellowships and is taking some time off. I'm not going to be legalistic about it but I consider it a step toward the door, out into the cold, step by step by step by step. The drifting looks actual and practical in some things. Home fellowships are a major part of our church's ministry to one another. It's a major part of what we do. Now, reverse, if you've never been involved in a home fellowship, don't know what they are, get involved. It's one of the number one ways you can get into a matrix of relationships where people will know actually what's happening in your life. If you're going to say, "Hey, no one ever called, no one cared, no one came." I'm going to ask first thing is, "Were you in a home fellowship?" It just takes commitment on that part. Let's be involved in that. Bible for life, that's a fruitful ministry. It's a good ministry, I know it's early now, really early, really really early for us. I understand that. Half hour earlier than it used to be. I know that, but here's the thing, I just want to ask you as a steward, if you're not attending BFL, is what you're doing right now at that hour better for your soul than what you would be getting it at BFL? That's all I'm asking? I think probably not. These are great classes, great teachers, you're with brothers and sisters that are studying these things, avail yourself. We don't charge tuition, isn't that awesome? That's cool. We get free biblical instruction and so many things. Let's get involved, Perhaps their attendance is fine but they're going through trials, medical trials, recently widowed or widower-ed. Lost, they're struggling. We need to be a family for each other and shepherd one another, and it's a job situation, something. Maybe they're just struggling with their quiet time, maybe they'll confess that they're struggling with some serious sin in their lives and they told you. Pray for heart of compassion for drifting people. One final point of application, I want to just talk about joy. Smile and rejoice. I tell you what, joy is a gift of the gospel, isn't it? The joy of knowing you're going to live forever in a resurrection body free from death, mourning, crying, and pain. Jesus is giving you a place at the wedding banquet of the lamb. It's got your name on it. I believe in election, predestination. Your name there. You're going to be there, nothing's going to stop it. I frequently ask people in my life, people I know, say they're discouraged. And I know we face discouragement. I know, that's what I'm preaching about. Satan's assaulting joy all the time. What's happened to all your joy? Legalism destroys joy, license destroys joy, trials can destroy joy. A lot of things, I understand that. But I guess what I'm saying is, there's one question I ask. Has Jesus Christ, who died on the cross in your place for sins, and who rose from the dead so you could live forever, done enough to make you happy today? Or do you need more from him? What more do you say? It's like, "Yeah, it's good, but if I could also have X then it'd be complete. It'd be fine." Really? Jesus has done enough for all of us who are in Christ to be joyful all the time. Now I know, sometimes you're going to be sorrowful. I get it. Sorrowful sometimes. But always what? Rejoicing. This church should be characterized by happiness. I do not make a distinction between happiness and joy. I know you're going to come say, "No, Pastor, joy is based on the promises of God and the deep things of God. Happiness is like nothing. It's like cotton candy." Friends, what's the difference? You're happy, you're joyful. I can tell they're both smiling, they're both up. I think it's the same thing. We can be happy about a team winning a game, or happy about Christ resurrected, but it's happiness. I'm saying let's be happy about Christ resurrected and that you're going to heaven when you die. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this text. We thank you for Paul's passion, his concern for the Galatians which has run through 20 centuries, and comes through to us today. Give us, O Lord a deep concern for the spiritual welfare of one another in this flock. Help the elders to be faithful to shepherd, help us to pray for one another and care for another. Thank you for the gospel that gives us joy in the midst of such sorrow and misery, that we can just be light shining in a dark place. Lights of joy shining in a dark place. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Galatians 3:22-29, and the point of how God frees sinners through Christ's redemptive work. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - In John Bunyan's classic allegory of the Christian Life, Pilgrim's Progress, a book that Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher read at least once a year for 50 years. And you think, how could you read the same book over and over? But it's such a powerful, scripturally saturated allegory of the Christian life. It begins with a man named Christian, who is desperately under conviction that he lives in the City of Destruction, and he's got a terrible burden on his back, and he's reading this book open in his hand, and the more he reads, the heavier his lamentations and sighs and weariness grows, and he's worried and concerned that he's going to come under the wrath of God, he's going to come under the judgment of God. And he can't find any rest, even sleep doesn't ease his heart. His wife doesn't... Actually, she makes it worse and it just gets terrible, and finally, he meets a man named Evangelist. And Evangelist points to a way to begin running to find the answers, a light in a wicket gate and he goes running, and he's got this terrible burden on his back, and he's yearning for deliverance from this. And as he's going along on the road that Evangelist told him to go on, he meets a man named Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Mr. Worldly Wiseman counsels him that he needs to go to the Town of Morality, where he can get some help with that burden on his back. He will meet a man there, named Legality, who is an expert at helping people get those kinds of burdens off their backs. But in order to get to the Village of Morality, Christian has to leave the path that he's on and start traveling a different way. By the way, in Pilgrim's Progress, never leave the path, always big trouble when you leave the path. And so, he leaves the path and he's going after the Town of Morality and he's trying to climb up this hill. And the hill becomes a mountain, it becomes a towering mountain, it starts to loom over him, even kind of folding back over him, and he's looking up with terror, and he's distressed, and in anguish and there's... He doesn't know where to go, he's paralyzed. Can't go forward another step, as though the mountain is there to fall on him and crush him. And moreover, from the top of the mountain, there are these terrible flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, and just the terrors coming on him. He's just standing there, he doesn't know what to do. And then comes Evangelist, again, a second time, praise the Lord. But he's not looking too happy with Christian at that moment. And he fixes a severe look on his face and he scolds him for leaving the true path. And he said, "No one ever got their burden off by going to the Town of Morality. And Legality cannot help you, all he can do is increase your burden." Well, this has been a common journey for many that are struggling with the terror of Judgment Day. The terrors of the wrath of God, the terrors of facing a holy God covered with sin. And they try through morality, through legal observances to try to ease their conscience, but it only gets worse. In 1732, there was a man, a young student, named George Whitefield. He was the son of a tavern owner and he enrolled in Pembroke College in Oxford, England. Only 17 years old, he soon joined a club, a group of other Christians, who were very serious about their Christianity, very serious. They were so meticulous and their pursuits of the moral precepts of Christianity, that they were called the nickname, The Methodists, was meant to be an insult at that point. George Whitefield became more and more concerned about his soul, and he started fasting, depriving himself of sleep, depriving himself of warm clothing in the winter. Laying out in the snow through the night, depriving himself of healthy foods. It got so bad that his hands actually started turning black. He couldn't get up the stairs into his dorm room, he was crawling up the stairs. People were afraid that he would soon die, which he probably would have, except that someone gave him a book, written by Henry Scougal, called 'The Life of God in the Soul of Man.' It saved not only his life, but it saved his soul. And in that booklet, it taught him the basic truths of Christianity, the basic gospel of Christ, the doctrine of the New Birth, through faith in Jesus Christ, through trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection, we can have eternal life, we can be born again, and we can live an entirely new kind of life. And he was born again, and he spent the rest of his life preaching, preaching the New Birth and the freedom that Christ alone can give. Now Tim Keller, in his comments on the book of Galatians and specifically, the section we're looking at today, said this, "Many Christians, though not all, testify that when they first became aware of their need for God, they went through a time of immaturity, in which they became extremely religious. They diligently sought to mend their ways and to do religious duties, to clean up their lives. They made tearful surrenders to God at church services. They gave their lives to Jesus, they asked him to come into their hearts. But so often, they were really only resolving to be very good and religious, hoping this would procure the favor and blessing of God. At this stage, they tended to have lots of emotional ups and downs, like children, feeling good when they made spiritual commitment and then feeling despondent when they failed to keep a promise to God, they felt a great deal of anxiety." Now, as we come to Galatians 3:23-29, we come to the culmination of this phase of Paul's argument. On the true gospel versus the legalistic gospel of what we've been calling the 'Judaizers.' Some false teachers, who came to Galatia after Paul preached the gospel and planted those churches there, he left and then they came afterwards. They claimed to believe in Jesus and in the gospel of Jesus, but they said, "You have to be circumcised, you have to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved." And so, they're trying to mix Jesus and Moses together in an unholy recipe for salvation. In this chapter, we've seen in Galatians 3:1-5, Paul begins with the Galatians' own experience when Paul came to their towns and preached the gospel, and how they had heard with faith the gospel. Simply hearing by faith, they believed and the Holy Spirit was poured out on them and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. "You remember how it was," he said, "having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected by the flesh?" "By human efforts at keeping the laws, is this how you're going to make it the rest of the way?" And then he turns from their experience to the Scriptures. He proves how Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was justified by faith in the promise, not by the law. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. On the contrary, those who try to keep the law and be justified by the law, be forgiven of their sins by the law, are under a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the law." All the law, all the time, or you're cursed. But thanks be to God for Jesus, Amen? He became a curse for us, so that he might redeem us from the curse of the law and give us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and adoption, and the inheritance through Abraham. We have seen all of that. So now the question in front of Paul, and he's been answering it and now he continues to answer it, is what then is the purpose of the law? Why did God, centuries after Abraham, give the law of Moses? What was he trying to do? I. The Law Was Our Jailer and Guardian, to Bring Us to Christ And so, we're going to see now, in this text, the purpose of the law, and we're going to focus, first and foremost, on how the law was a jailer and a guardian to bring us to Christ. So if the law couldn't save our souls, why was it given? Now, there are many answers to this question. I'm not saying that the answer we're giving now is the only reason for the law. There are multiple reasons why God gave the law to the human race, to the Jews and to the human race. But here we're going to focus on the issue of salvation. And he's going to bring up these themes... The law as a jailer, and the law as a custodian or guardian. Now, according to Paul's argument here, the law had a temporary role to play, both in an individual's life, I think, and also in redemptive history. The law is here for just a while until something happens, and then, in that role, you don't need it anymore. There is that time aspect that he has here. Now, God was very wise in giving us the law. There's nothing wrong with the law, the law had a very good purpose. But the direct salvation of sinners was not one of the purposes of the law. That's not why God gave it, else God has failed, else Christ died needlessly, as we've already seen. So he's answering the question of the role of the law here. In Romans, he defends the law a little more clearly and directly. In Romans 7:7, he says, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not." So the law is not sin. Actually, five verses later, in Romans 7:12, he says, "So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." There's nothing wrong with the law. But here, in Galatians 3, Paul is revealing some of God's purpose in giving the law. And he's emphasizing that once faith in Christ comes, the law doesn't play that role anymore. That time is over, it's done. Now, we have to step back for a moment, and I've already hinted at it, but we have to ask a question. Is Paul speaking personally about individuals or is he speaking nationally about the Jews? It's a very important question. We have to try to understand that. In Romans 7, very plainly, Paul is speaking personally. He's talking about his own experience with the law. "Once I was alive, apart from the law. But when the commandment came," he says, "sin sprang to life and I died." He's speaking very autobiographically, very personally. But here, in Galatians 3, it's not so clear. It seems at least possible that he's speaking more in terms of redemptive history, big picture, about the function of the law in the history of the Jewish nation. Or he may be speaking, as in Romans, about the law, in terms of individual salvation. Both of those are valid answers, both of them are valid themes. And we can see the importance of understanding each. The law had a role to play in the lives of individual sinners, Jews or Gentiles, and the law also had a role to play in the history of the world, through the history of the Jewish nation. In both cases though, once the era of faith in Christ comes, the law no longer plays those roles, either for the individual or for the nation as a whole. For the individual sinner, Jew or Gentile, the law plays a role in making the sinner despair of personal righteousness. And then, bringing the sinner, despairing in personal righteousness, bringing the sinner to faith in Christ. The law has that role. For the Jewish nation, the law played a role in preparing a setting for the Jewish Messiah to come, to set the Jews apart as a special nation with walls or barriers around them. Circumcision, dietary regulations, all of the ceremonial law, the special days and seasons and years, all of those things identified the Jews as what we would call a peculiar people, and gave a Jewish context for the Messiah to be born into. "Once the era of faith in Christ comes, the law no longer plays those roles , either for the individual [despairing the sinner of personal righteousness] or for the nation as a whole [preparing a setting for the Jewish Messiah to come]." We have to understand both of those things. Either way, once Christ comes, that time is over. That time is over. So let's first look at this issue of the law as jailer. And by the way, on the nation, we also know that even the national history of the Jews ends up being a laboratory for individual salvation. That we Gentiles can watch what happened to the Jewish nation, how they behaved under the law, how they could not keep it, how they constantly were violating it, how the Lord was continually sending prophets to warn them and bringing judgements and they still didn't keep the law. So we can step aside, just as individuals, and say, "We're the same." What person has ever read the Book of Judges and not found your own struggle with sin in that book? You're not allegorizing, you're just saying, "I have the same kind of cycles going on in my own life." And we can see that connection with the whole Jewish nation. So, they actually are somewhat intertwined. The Jews as a nation and then, individual salvation. But let's zero in on this issue of the law as a jailer, and that's very much on the personal side here. Verse 23. Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, or locked up, some would say. Imprisoned, until the coming faith was revealed. This is a time orientation, before this faith came. So we're following the flow of the argument of Galatians. Paul is speaking of individual experience of law and salvation. Look back at verses 21 and 22. Try to get the flow here. You always want to get these things in context. “Is the law, [verse 21,] is the law therefore contrary to the promises of God? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly come by the law. But the scripture has imprisoned everything under sin's power, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” You see, it's very individual there. It's got to do with individual salvation. As individuals believe, then the promise comes to those individuals. So, the law is not the enemy of God's promise. Not at all. Actually, both law and promise work together in the providence of God and in the saving power of God to bring individual sinners to faith in Christ. They both have a role to play. Now, the law has no power to bring about the ultimate end of salvation, has no power at all to bring about the purpose of eternal life and a blessed, reconciled relationship with almighty God. It has no power to do that. Has no power to make a single person on earth righteous. Rather, God intended in some amazing way to imprison everyone on earth, not just the Jews, under sin's power, that we would realize that we are powerless to save ourselves. This imprisonment under sin and the law would continue until Christ came and set us free. So we're locked up by the law, powerless to escape, until at last, Christ comes to set the sinner free. So verse 22 makes it plain that once faith in the promise of life in Jesus Christ comes, the imprisonment ends for those who believe. Verse 23 just picks up the flow. Verse 23, "Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned, until the coming faith was revealed." This is the law as a prison warden or a jailer. So the law functions very negatively here. It instructs us what sin is. It actually provokes and draws out sin from us and then, it condemns us for the sin that it has drawn out. That's what the law does. It defines sin. It provokes or draws out sin and then it condemns sin. That's it. Notice that not listed in there is saves from sin, or transforms the heart. It does not have power to do those things. The law teaches us God's righteous standards. Once we have violated them, it locks us up and we are as though we are on death row, waiting for the condemnation to come. And the law cannot speak a word of mercy to us. It's not in its power to do so. It has no power to speak mercy to us. And so, the law teaches us God's morality, its righteous standards. Look at the 10 commandments. "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make any idol, neither shall you worship any idols. You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Do all your work in six days and rest on the seventh, for God made heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Honor your father and mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bare false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor." Ten commandments. They're essentially negative, for the most part. You shall not, you shall not. For the most part, they're negative. Jesus, when asked about the law, summarized all of the law, not just the 10 commandments, but 600 commandments and more, summarized under two positive headings... Two positive headings. The first and greatest commandment of the law is this, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength." The second commandment, he said, is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." So that's the law. The 10 and two. Now, these commandments describe God's righteous heart, his righteous expectations. Those commandments and hundreds of others are pure and altogether righteous, it says in Psalm 19. But we find that we cannot obey them. We cannot keep these commandments, we find we cannot obey them because the law actually draws sin out from us. It gives our wicked, rebellious hearts a chance to rebel and be wicked. If there were no law, there could, by definition, be no transgression. We'd be permitted to do anything we wanted. If we were permitted to do anything we wanted, then there would be no violations, there would be no Judgment Day, no commandments. The law comes and shows us God's righteous standards and our inner sin nature rises up to challenge his right to give us those commands. Challenges it. In Romans 7, Paul especially speaks of the 10th commandment. I think the 10th commandment's very powerful, "You shall not covet." You shall not covet, there should be inside of you no motions of jealousy toward another human being for any advantage or benefit they have in life. You shall not set your desire on anything else, anything that belongs to your neighbor. Their spouse, their possessions, their house, their car, their... Doesn't mention cars, but you know by extension. I don't know, chariots, donkeys. I mean, anything that they own, anything at all, you shall not have motions of your heart to go out, shall not fantasize toward what it'd be like if you could live in that house or if you could have that promotion that you deserved and they got it. Never any motions of coveting. Paul talks about what the law did to him in Romans 7:7-11, he said, "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not. Indeed, I would not have known what sin was, except through the law, for I would not have known what coveting really was, if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.' But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Once I was alive, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life, actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me, and through the commandment, put me to death." That's how it works. Paul was free in the manner of coveting until the law came into his mind, he learned what coveting was and then, now he's coveting left and right. "Filled with all kinds of covetous desires," he said. How does this work? Well, imagine a father brings home a big cardboard box, okay? Puts it in the corner with a bunch of other boring papers and his coat and it just sits there. Kids walk by, don't give it a second look. But say instead, he brings that box, puts it in the center of the table and puts a big sign on it, saying, "Absolutely do not look in this box." What happens then? Temptation happens next, is what happens. If it goes on long enough, someone, looking left and looking right, is going to open that box. So the commandment brings out the desire, it brings out the sin, that's what the law was meant to do. In Romans 5, "The law was added, so that the trespass might increase." It's very counter-intuitive there. We would think that the law was given so there'd be less sin, that's not what's going on. He wants you to see it. And then, the law condemns you, because all sin deserves the death penalty and you're put on death row 'cause you're not killed instantly. God and his mercy gives you time to repent, but you're on death row now and the law is your jailer. Verse 23, "Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, we were imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed." "So the commandment brings out the desire, it brings out the sin, that's what the law was meant to do.... It's very counter-intuitive there. We would think that the law was given so there'd be less sin, that's not what's going on. He wants you to see it." John Stott, commenting on this, said this, "After God gave the promise to Abraham, he gave the law to Moses. Why? Well, he had to make things worse before he could make them better. The law exposed sin, it provoked sin, it condemned sin. The purpose of the law was to lift the lid off of man's respectability and disclose what he really is underneath, sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God and helpless to save himself. And the law must still be allowed to do this God-given duty today. One of the great faults of the contemporary Church," says Stott, "is the tendency to soft-pedal sin and judgment. We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel. To do so is to contradict the plan of God in biblical history. No man has every appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it's only against the dark background of sin and judgment that the gospel shines forth." Our age, here in America, our culture, our age has very little sense of the law as jailer. And I fear it's because the Church is not preaching the fullness of the counsel of God here. Very few evangelists and pastors are preaching clearly the terrors of the law. The terrors of eternal condemnation for all who are judged, condemned on Judgment Day. People think of themselves as basically a good person or basically good people, but the law, if they understand it properly, exposes them as deeply, truly rebellious to the core of their being. I think we don't do it, as we're sharing our faith, because it's uncomfortable to do. It's painful to do, to show someone their sin. Now, we ought to do it as those who are under the same terrors, if it weren't for Christ. But we need to do the law work in people's hearts. So how do you do it? I would suggest, if you want to evangelize, memorize what I just gave you a few minutes ago, a simplified outline of the 10 commandments, memorize it. Secondly, memorize the two great commandments, you could do it in an afternoon, memorize the 10 and two. For extra credit, memorize the legal commentary on two of the 10 commandments by Jesus. Now, Jesus is a legal expert and his comments on the 10 commandments will be important for us. When? On Judgment Day. Why? 'Cause he's the judge that's going to be sitting on your case. Is that of interest to you? The fact that the judge who will be sitting on your case had some comments to make on the 10 commandments. Where did he make those comments? In the Sermon on the Mount. So I would suggest that you memorize this, as well. "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'You shall not murder,' and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment, but I tell you that anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca', is in danger of the fire of hell. Anyone who says 'you fool' is in danger of the fire of hell." Now you're like, "Who is he to make that comment? If you just say some insult, 'you fool', you're in danger of the fire of hell? Who is Jesus to make a comment like that?" John 5 says that the Father has entrusted all judgment to him. He will be sitting on your case. And he says he's not just looking for, "Did you consummate the act?" But were there motions toward murder in your heart? Have there ever been unholy motions of anger in your heart toward another human being? Have you acted on it by saying something harsh? By a hard action toward them? God, the Father, Christ, the judge, puts that all under one file, calls it murder. And says you are in danger of the fire of hell. He then goes on to talk about the commandment on adultery. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart." ,"If your right eye cause you to sin, then gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." Again, the same thing, he's intensifying the law. Now, you may say, "This doesn't seem right." But think about it. The 10th commandment, what part of you is the judge looking at, to decide whether you broke the 10th commandment? What part of your body do you use to covet? Is it not the heart? Is it not the internal part of you? Jesus is just saying the same goes for all of them. God's looking at the heart, he's looking at, "Do you have other gods?" He's looking at, "Do you take the name of the Lord in vain?" He's looking at what you're doing with the law at the heart. Later, in that same chapter, Matthew 5:48, he sums it all up with this sweeping statement. "You must be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Moral perfection is required for heaven. Now listen, friends, future evangelists, present evangelists, if you're doing the work of the law here, you're going 10 plus two, the two commandments, who can say they've loved God with every fiber of their being, every moment of their lives? Who can say that? Who can say they've sacrificed everything they had for their neighbors and others? Who can ever say that? No one can make it through that net. By the time you get done, I've seen it happen time and time again, the person you're witnessing to says, "No one can keep that, no one's perfect." It's like, "Yes, you got it." But you have to be perfect. Now, they may disagree with that, doesn't matter. It will matter for them, but the truth is you must be as perfect morally as God to go to heaven, and the law tells you, you're not. Jesus goes beyond that in Matthew 12:36, he says, "I tell you that men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken." Full record of all of your words are conveniently kept for you, you'll meet it on Judgment Day. I remember witnessing to someone, he said, "I don't remember everything I said yesterday." It's like, "It's all right, God does. He's got it all down." And you get seeing people's eyes, they start getting bigger and bigger. It means you're actually doing some evangelism now. I saw once a bumper sticker, "Christ is the answer," and then you see this sarcastic question "What's the question?" I'll tell you what the question is, "How can a sinner like me stand before a Holy God like him and survive?" Christ is the answer to that question, he's the only way we can. And so, we have to make this clear, we have to make the Great White Throne Judgement clear. Revelation 20, "Then I saw a Great White Throne and him who's seated on it, and earth and sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the Throne and the books were opened and another book was open, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death and if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown in the lake of fire." It's our job, dear friends, as evangelists, to make these things vividly clear to unbelievers. And if you are an unbeliever, you're invited here today. It is presently my privilege to make these things vividly clear to you. The law is a jailer because it does not speak a single word of comfort to you in all of this. Not a single word, can only condemn, condemn by justice. We need to tell people the truth. This is the truth. But once someone receives the truth of the law and Judgement Day and eternity in hell, but hasn't yet understood the gospel of grace through faith in Christ, they may immediately try to earn salvation by resolutions and extreme efforts and asceticism. Church history is full of those stories. I don't think we see much of it in our culture around because the law isn't being preached like it should be. But some people not quite coming to Christ yet, they try to earn their own salvation. Thus, the law brings someone to Christ because before the law came, the sinner didn't know he or she needed a savior. So the law tells the bad news, so that Christ can tell the good news. Verse 23, "Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned, until the coming faith was..." What? "Revealed, revealed." Faith in Christ has to be revealed, like it was to Simon Peter at Caesarea Philippi. In Matthew 16, "What about you?" he said, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ. You are the son of the living God." And Jesus said, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven." So the Father in heaven has to reveal Christ. Faith is a synonym for Christ here, in this verse. Until Christ is revealed. He uses faith because that's the principle by which we receive the gift of salvation through Christ, but it's really Christ that's being revealed. And it's revealed in the gospel that Christ has all the righteousness you need to survive Judgment Day and he's willing to give it to you as a gift. He uses the verb later in our text, 'clothed with Christ'. He is willing to put a robe, a beautiful robe of righteousness on you, as a gift. 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made him who had no sin, [Christ] to be sin for us." He was clothed with our defiling wickedness on the cross, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Or as Galatians 3 put it, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, 'Cursed it is everyone who's hung on a tree.' He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith, we might receive the promise of the Spirit." Before this faith is revealed, though, the sinner's dead in transgressions and sins, the law makes that plain. The law is also a guardian. It's a separate word used here, interesting word. Verse 24, "So then, the law was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith." Now the metaphor shifts a bit. He uses a second word, a different image, 'paidagogos' is the word here. From the Greek word for child and lead. One who leads a child. So like a nanny or something like that, but it's not an exact parallel in our culture. Back then, a wealthy, estate-owning individual would hire a highly-trained, maybe Greek slave, a philosopher, Greek slave, who would be the paidagogos, the guardian, the tutor, school master, etcetera, for the children who were underage. And so, he would have the responsibility to take care of these sons on a daily basis, train them, instruct them, discipline them, protect them from harm. His discipline could be quite harsh as needed. He was training them. They were children. Now, one day, they would come into their inheritance. They were sons of noblemen and they would come into their inheritance, but when they were children, they needed the guardian, they needed the school master. The idea is wanting a protective oversight given to boys, who are minors and needed protection and training. The law then kept the Jewish nation identifiable and protected and safe and not pagan, not melting away into pagan... Remember all those things in Ezra and Nehemiah about intermarriage and the children don't even speak the language of Zion. They're not even speaking Hebrew. What's going on? The desire is to keep the Jewish nation identifiably Jewish and protected until the Messiah was born, next chapter, of a woman, born under the law and fullness of time, Jewish, okay? But once Jesus comes, you don't need circumcision or dietary regulations or any of those ceremonial laws anymore. That's done. You don't need to identify the Jews as a nation anymore, now that Christ has come. So that's what he's talking about here. So individually, then, the law serves as a tutor and a guardian, bringing immature individuals to Christ, so they can be justified. Bringing an immature nation in redemptive history to the time in redemptive history when Christ will be born as a Jew. So the law trains, it instructs, it protects, but it doesn't justify. Faith alone in Christ justifies. "The law trains, it instructs, it protects, but it doesn't justify. Faith alone in Christ justifies." II. The Age of Faith in Christ Has Come, the Jailer/Guardian Has Gone So now, good news, the age of faith in Christ has come and the jailer and guardian has gone. Look at verses 25 through 27. "But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Verse 27, "For as many of you has been baptized, have been baptized in the Christ, have put on Christ." So nationally, once the Jewish nation and redemptive history at the right time, Christ born, once that came, the nation has grown to maturity, they don't need the guardian of the law anymore. Child becomes a man. And so, when Jesus was born and grew, presented to the Jewish nation, time for the law as a shaper of Jewish national identity had ended. The law brought the Jewish nation to Christ. Christ brought salvation, then, to the Jewish nation, but only to those who would believe in him, those were the true sons of Abraham, as he said very plainly in his ministry. So the era of the guardian is over, no more ceremonial laws. Later, Paul's going to say to the Galatians, "I'm distressed to your observing special days and months and seasons and years." "Don't you realize the time for that's done? We're not under that calendar anymore, we're not under that system anymore. It's done." And so, circumcision is done, the time for animal sacrifice and the priestly class, all that's done. And the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile is gone forever. Isn't that awesome? There was that barrier, that dividing wall that separated Jew and Gentile. Circumcision, a very clear example of that. You had the uncircumcised Gentiles and then, you had the circumcised Jews. But now that Christ has come, that's been removed now, it's been removed. Ephesians 2:14 and 15, speaking of Christ, "He, himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself, [listen to this] one new man out of the two, thus making peace." That is absolutely fits like a lock and a key in the text I'm preaching on right now. There's no longer Jew or Gentile, there's now just Christian, they say. That's the one new man, believer in Jesus, doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, that's what he's saying. That barrier, the dividing wall, is gone and so once faith individually comes into the heart, the time of being under the jailer is done. The sinner comes into full, the full freedom of forgiveness. The law doesn't have power over you to condemn you anymore, you're free from all of that. You're free men and women in Christ. The scripture testifies to our perfect righteousness in Christ and the silence of the law as accuser. Praise God for these verses. Listen to Colossians 2:13-14, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ." Speaking of Gentiles there, in Colossae. "He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross." So God took all of the law. Like, see the commandments and then how you broke them. Commandment, how you broke it, commandment... It's all written out, written in indelible ink. God took that and nailed it to the cross and said, "Forgiven" to all of it. It's been forgiven, you're forgiven, it's been nailed to the cross. So it says in Romans 8:1-3, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." No condemnation because through Christ Jesus, "the law of the spirit of life, [we're getting to that in Galatians 5] has set me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law was powerless to do and that it was weakened by the flesh, God did, by sending his son in the likeness of the flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh. And then later, in that same chapter, Romans 8:33 and 34, while you're doing all that memorizing, go ahead and memorize Romans 8. Amen? What a great chapter. Romans 8:33 and 34, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has justified?" Who's going to do that, who's going to stand up and charge you on Judgment Day? The implication is no, because it says, "It is God who justifies. Who dares condemn? God has justified you. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for you." So what that means is 'baptized into Christ' means freedom from the jailer and the guardian. We are free forever from the jailer and the accuser. And that's true of all believers, all believers are equally free from this. III. All Believers Are Equally Heirs by Faith in the Promise Look at verses 26 to 29, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise." This is the full glory of the gospel of grace, adoption into God's family. "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." What a wonderful message to these Gentile Christians from Galatia. You're already fully adopted into God's family. You're already sons of Abraham. Judaizers' doctrine made them feel like second-class citizens, right? You're not really in until you get circumcised. Start obeying that Jewish law. Gotta become Jews. We're already Jews, we're already in, we're Jewish believers in Christ. We're at the highest level. You're second class citizens. Paul says, "No, you're not. You're already fully heirs with Abraham." Praise God. You're already sons of God through faith, not by law. And he speaks there about being baptized into Christ. If you've been baptized into Christ, you've clothed yourself with Christ, a powerful image here. I don't believe he's directly talking about water baptism. Indirectly, yes. But 'baptizo', the Greek word, means to immerse, to plunge. Not trying to be offensive to any of our paedobaptist friends, but that's what the word means. It means to plunge, not to sprinkle, to plunge. Okay? That's what the word means, plunge. We are immersed, by the Spirit immersed into Christ, immersed into him. Now, water baptism is merely an outward visible symbol. John the Baptist was clear on this. John the Baptist said, "I baptize, [I immerse] in water for repentance, but after me will come one more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. [He will immerse you] He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire." Because he was speaking to a mixed group, I think you can read or there. You're either going to be immersed in the Holy Spirit by Jesus or he will immerse you in the lake of fire. And if you don't think that's the right interpretation, keep reading in Matthew 3 because that fire, John the Baptist describes very plainly in a few verses. So Jesus will rescue you from the lake of fire, by immersing you in the Holy Spirit. Jesus baptized you in the Holy Spirit. Then, along comes some Baptist and will immerse you in water to show it. It’s an outward and visible sign of an immersion you've already had through the Holy Spirit by Jesus. And if you've done that, it says, "You have clothed yourself in Christ." You're clothed. You're just immersed in the righteousness of Christ. You're immersed in Jesus. And there, in front of the cross, the ground is perfectly level, absolutely level. Look at verse 28 and 29, "There is no Jew or Greek. There's no slave or free. There's no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The Judaizers were filled with nationalistic pride, weren't they, of being Jewish. Gentiles were often called 'dogs', very disparaging and negative, but that is over now. That's over. In Christ, the foot of the cross, the ground is perfectly level. The cross of Jesus Christ is the great equalizer. Jewish Christians aren't any more sons of Abraham than Gentile Christians. They're not second-class citizens at all, but fully adopted sons and daughters of Abraham and heirs with him of the promises. Notice that Paul extends this to three key forms of distinction in society: Racial distinctions. In Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek, so race doesn't matter at the foot of the cross. Social status. In Christ, there's neither slave nor free. And then, gender. In Christ, there's neither male nor female. In other words, your real identity at the foot of the cross has nothing to do with those things, nothing to do with them at all. The only thing that's going to matter on that day is sheep or goat, frankly, believer or unbeliever. So therefore, in the Christian church, there are no second-class citizens. Jews are no better than Gentiles in the Christian church. White people, no better than black people. Black people, no better than white people. Americans, no better than Orientals. Orientals, no better than Americans. Rich people are no better than poor people. Poor people, no better than rich people. Men are no better than women. Women, no better than men. All of these things are based on pride and arrogance and they foster disunity. But, in verse 28, we are all one in Christ Jesus. And that oneness is a deep mystery. It's patterned after the mystery of the Trinity, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one." And Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be as one as the Father and the Son are one. So we are all one. It's speaking about unity in Christ. Now, this does not mean that these distinctions are meaningless, it doesn't. Let's talk about racial distinctions. There are such. There will be people from every tribe and language and people and nation as such around the throne of God in heaven. And they're going to look like it. I think they're even going to be dressed like it, but I don't know for sure. And that's cool because God is an incredibly diverse creator, isn't he? He doesn't want us all 5 foot 10 inches, 170 lbs. He doesn't want us all looking the same. He has made a beautiful, diverse world. In Revelation 21, it talks about the gates of the new Jerusalem standing open, so that the kings of the earth may bring diverse glory into it all the time. So God wants that diversity. This isn't talking about that, though. And the same thing was social. God created some people in society to be leaders, owners, bosses, authority figures and he upholds those distinctions. We're to submit to them in society, show them honor and respect. Parents, for example, we submit to them. Okay? But we're still one in Christ. We're equally redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And then gender, this has to be said most clearly because there is a demonic assault on gender in our society today. Do you see it? Started with feminism, but it's gone much bigger than that. That gender doesn't matter and this is the favorite verse in the Bible for people who want to push that agenda. So here I am, right on “their turf” speaking about these things. But it isn't their turf because it's not what the verse is even talking about it. I've given a very small slice of this sermon pie to this topic because it's not what Paul is even talking about. Okay? It's not true that gender means nothing in the home or in the church. That is not true. There are differences between husbands and wives and there are difference between men and women, in terms of who can be an elder and who can't. It's very clearly taught in 1 Timothy 2. So we would not say that gender means nothing when it comes to marriage. We would not look at this verse as supporting same-sex marriages. Most evangelical feminists, who cling to this verse would reject that, but they still want to say, "In Christ there's neither male nor female." They're going too far. It's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about intrinsic redemption through faith in Christ. We're all equally redeemed by the blood of Christ, that's all. And then, we get the glory of being an heir with Abraham. Verse 29, "If you are Christ’s, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." We get God as our inheritance. We get a resurrection body as our inheritance, we get the new heaven and the new earth as an inheritance, we get Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem as an inheritance, we get the Kingdom. "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take the Kingdom, the inheritance, prepared for you." IV. Applications So what applications can we take from this? I just want you to picture right now, picture that time that Jesus was talking about in Matthew 25, when the Son of Man comes in his Father's glory, and all the angels with him. He will gather all the nations together, all of them gathered together. I don't know how to picture 10 billion people or more in one place, I don't know how to picture that. But then, he's going to separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he's going to put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. The sheep are believers in Christ, the goats are not. That's the only distinction that will matter at that time. The only one that matters. Your resume will not matter, your achievements will not matter, your racial status will not matter, your socio-economic status will not matter, your gender will not matter. The only thing that will matter is this, did Christ know you? Did you know him by faith? Did you come into a covenant of salvation by simple faith in Jesus? That's the only thing that's going to matter at that point. If you repent and believe in Christ, you can know the freedom that only Christ can give. As Charles Wesley put it, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused, Christ's eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee." Do you want that to happen to you? Then repent and trust in Jesus. Do you want to see that happen in someone else's life? Then preach the law, then the gospel to somebody this week. Tell them the truth. Tell them what's really coming. Know that you are set free, if you're a Christian, you are set free from the law. Find your self-esteem, if I can speak, finally, on self-esteem. In last week's theme and this week's theme, find your self-esteem in the fact that we are all equally created in the image of God, last week's sermon, and we are all, who are Christians, equally redeemed by the blood of Jesus. That's where your self-esteem comes from. And once you give yourself that self-esteem, please give it to others, too. Those distinctions don't matter at all. And finally, let's strive for unity, all of us, one from another. We have different roles to play, but we're one body. We have different roles to play in the body of Christ, some ahead, some a foot, some an eye, etcetera, but we're all one in Christ. Let's be one. Let's love one another. Let's be brought to increasing unity. Let's have a surprising, amazing unity in this church, racial unity, gender unity, socio-economic unity, let's put that on display for the world. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the truth of the gospel. Thank you that we are free from condemnation. Thank you that we're not under the jailer or the guardian anymore. Thank you that faith has come. Father, I pray that if faith hasn't come for specific individuals, listen to me right now, O God, speak to them now, open the eyes of their heart, that they might see Christ and in him, salvation. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Until Christ returns, we will face trials. James promised us that. But these trials have been sent by God, so that we would become steadfast, persistent and unwavering. But trials don’t...

Speaker: Trey Corry Scripture: Hebrews 1:4-14 Series: Hebrews Series Order: 03 Location: Grace Bible Church Southwood God has selected Jesus, not the angels, as His King to rule the coming future kingdom of God. Until Christ's return though, the people of God proclaim His worth in worship and evangelism as we advance His kingdom on earth. PowerPoint Slides

Until Christ comes, Satan will never stop pecking away at our hearts! But God Himself protects our hearts!

We begin by saying, Its not about us. Its about Him. We talked about two of our purposes: We were planned for a purpose. We talked about worship and what that is. Our second purpose was fellowship; we were formed for Gods family. This morning were looking at our third purpose: You were created to become like Christ. Paul speaks of that purpose in Galatians 4:19 (page 1154 of the pew Bibles) when he says, My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth, until Christ is formed in you... So, that is the goal of the Holy Spirit. He works within our life to form Christ in us. That is what God desires: that our character-our person, reflects His Son. That is the third purpose of our life that were going to be speaking on this morning. You notice he uses the word until. What does that signify to you, the word until? Until Christ is formed in you? That this thing we call discipleship is not an event; its not a program. Starting a discipleship…you dont understand discipleship. Discipleship is not contained in a program anymore than fellowship is contained in its totality in a small group. No, a small group cannot contain the totality of Koinonia. It has to go beyond a small group where you do life together. Discipleship is the whole of your Christian experience, not a program or an event. Its all of it, and it is a process. That process is discussed in Philippians 1:6 (page 1161 of pew Bibles), if youll flip over to that. Paul writes, …being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. The tense of the verb is the future active, which means God is doing it, was doing it, He is doing it now, and He will continue to do so. God will continue to work in your life to conform you to the image of His Son. Discipleship is a process. That is something God is doing. Hes using the circumstances, the people, your environment, your heredity, the things youre learning, the ways youre serving, the relationships and friendships you have, the spiritual disciplines, your spiritual gifts. All of these things in totality, God is using to form Jesus in you. That process lasts our whole life long. That process is called discipleship. God wants you to grow up and mature in Him. God doesnt want a bunch of spiritual Peter Pans running around that just choose to never grow up. There are some Christians who are just content to stay immature their whole lives. Babies are cute; we like babies. Theyre cute, and sometimes theyre messy. They drool and spit up, but theyve very dependent. They have diapers that need to be changed; they need to be spoon fed, but theyre cute. Let me tell you something: thirty year olds who are in diapers and need to be spoon fed, have pacifiers, and drool arent cute. You have to grow up. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. God wants you to mature. God wants you to grow up in him. You have a part to play in that. When I was a young believer, this verse ministered to me so much because I felt like I am willfully inadequate when it comes to being a disciple of Christ. I bet Gods ready to kick me out. I bet hes ready to throw in the towel and say, This guy isnt going to make it. The pastor preached on this verse when I was 18 years old. It said to me, God is not going to give up on me. Even though Im unfaithful, even though Im not always what Im supposed to be, God is going to continue to work in me. Hes not a quitter. So, that is a good promise, isnt it? Thats a wonderful promise of His Word. But that promise is based on a partnership. You may want to read Philippians 1:6 and say, Oh, all I have to do is kick back, put my hands behind my head, feet up on the footstool, and, God, do your thing. It says Youre going to work in me until the day of completion. Well, thats not Biblical. We have a part to play in our discipleship as well. Flip over one page to Philippians 2: 12-13. Paul writes, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling… Notice he says-and this isnt going to be in your book as youre reading this week, youre going to run across a phrase: its work out not work for your salvation. If he had said work for your salvation, wed all be in trouble. How do we know when weve worked enough? How do we know when its good enough? Well, you dont have to work for your salvation because you cannot earn it. Christ bought it for you. You receive it by faith. You dont work for it. Continue to work out your salvation. He says, You dont work for a body. You work out your body. You work out because you have a body. In the same token, you dont work for your salvation; you work out your salvation. Its because you are saved that you want to be discipled. You want to grow in the image of Christ. He says you do so with fear and trembling. What does that mean? Does that mean God wants us to be afraid of Him? Does that mean we are going to lose our salvation, so we better work hard on it or were going to lose it. No. Its talking here about sober-mindedness. Its talking about how some people approach their spirituality and their own discipleship rather casually, rather flippantly, as if itll happen. Gods in charge of that. Its going to happen. Thats careless. Thats going to hurt you. That is going to cripple you, and its going to cause you to not grow in Christ as God desires you to grow in Christ. That kind of mentality is not Biblical. He says when you approach the subject of discipleship, there is a sober-mindedness to it. Youre serious about it. Go to the gym and be haphazard sometime. What kind of results are you going to get? You walk in [and someone asks], [Are] you going to work out today? I dont know. I think Im just going to stand in the weight room. Ill get big muscles. Ill get toned. Ill just stand here. It doesnt work that way, right? You have to be sober-minded. If youre going to develop into a person thats fit, youre going to have to do something about that. Thats what hes talking about here: approach your spirituality seriously. Recognize you have a part to play. You have a responsibility in what God is doing in your life. Verse 13 says, For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. Its not about you. Whose good purpose? His good purpose. Hes working in you for His good purpose. Its not about you. Notice something interesting: sometimes people get hung up in certain theological circles about free will and sovereignty issues. Do you see that sovereignty and free will exist in perfect harmony in these two verses? Do you put verse 12-13 in juxtaposition? One is talking about mans free will, and the other is talking about Gods total sovereignty, and guess what? They coexist. They get along. Paul had no problem with it. God is sovereign, and man is free. I did a little detective work for you, free of charge. I decided I was going to investigate the word work in Verse 12. I knew I wouldnt be content with investigating Verse 12. I wanted it investigated in Verse 13 [as well]. What if the word work in Verse 13 is a different word from the word work in Verse 12? I was just curious because I didnt know. I dont have the Greek New Testament memorized. I dont know what every single word is, right? So I thought, What is this word? I looked it up in Verse 13, and guess what? It was a different word for work. I dont know if that gets you excited, but if youre a pastor, that gets you really excited. I just found a clue! I just found something! Its like a detective when he finds a clue, and he gets all excited. Hes gathering evidence. I think Im starting to figure this out! Whats this other word work here? Well, the first word work had to do with performing a task, going through directives, accomplishing a mission, and youre carrying out a task. It has to do with you fulfilling your purpose. You do what God has called you to do. You work on the commands God has given you to work on. You do your part. Thats the first word work. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Its work to love when you dont want to love, to forgive when you dont want to forgive, to speak out when you dont want to speak out, to not quit when you want to quit. Thats work. Work out your salvation. Do what God has called you to do and be. Put elbow grease into it. You have a part to play. The second word for work in Verse 13 was used exclusively for what God does. That word meant to work within for a purpose. I looked up every incidence of these two words in the Bible, and it was very clear that that meaning was different, to work within something for a purpose. Ill give you a couple of illustrations of this working hand in hand. Lets say you have a stain in your bathtub, and you cant get it out. Youre scrubbing, and youre trying what they say on the commercials. Nothing is working, so you call Grandma. You say, Hey, Grandma, I have a stain in my bathtub. How do I get it out? Grandma says, You just buy… You say, Okay, I will, so you go to the store, buy this product, and you put it on. You notice that the stain starts to dissolve. You start seeing some bubbles. You start to work at it; you put your elbow into it. Pretty soon, you look at the rag, and that stain is coming up. Youre getting all excited. You put more on there, and you start scrubbing away. Next thing you know, that stain comes out. Now, the first word work is in Verse 12. Thats what you do. Thats the elbow grease, I have to get this stain out of here. I have to put some effort into it, some sweat and hard work. When youre watching that product work on that stain, and it starts to dissolve, what do you usually say when that happens? You look at it, and you go, Its working! Its working! Its happening! Thats the word work that God does. Its working within for a desired purpose, a desired result. Its breaking down that stain so it can be clean. You need both because you cant get that stain out of yourself. There are sins in your soul that-I dont care how much you work-youre never going to remove them. If you just sat and worked on your own strength and might, you will never remove that stain no matter how hard you try. You need the Holy Spirit. Its not simply a matter of Holy Spirit, remove that stain from my life. Ill just watch Oprah while you do that. Ill just watch the ballgame today while you work that stain out of my life, Lord. It doesnt work that way either, folks. You see, I do my part, and God does His part. I work out; God works within. Ill give you another illustration. Im taking a class now called Power Pump. I had to have my arm twisted a little bit to do it because I thought it sounded like it was for women. I didnt want to be dancing around with weights going four more and three more, that kind of thing. Im not doing that. I was told, No, its not just going to be just for men or women. Its light weights, high rep. There is music, but youre not dancing to it. I said I would give it a shot. It was work. Some of you women work muscles that we guys didnt even know we had. They had me doing something where I had a band, and I was lying on my side doing this. I didnt know I had muscles up and down here. Boy was I sore the next day. Women were just flying with that thing. The guys were like, Ahhhhhh! It was terrible-and embarrassing. You work out everything; you work out your chest, your back, and your legs; everything gets worked out during the course of that hour, which seems like it lasts a long time. A couple of my friends from the church are in it too, and were kind of teasing each other as we work out. Were stretching-which is another thing most guys dont do-and Ive started noticing some results. Its like Im a little bit more flexible. Im starting to feel some muscles that werent toned and now are. They are making a difference when Im walking, going up steps, or playing basketball. Im starting to see some results here. What happens is when I work out, I go through the task that my teacher tells me to do, and I do them to the best of my ability, and I do them in the right form. I work hard at them. After that, what do I do? Whats my responsibility? Eat and rest. What happens then is my muscles work within to strengthen. I dont have any control over that. I dont turn to my quadriceps and think, How am I going to make that quadriceps tone up? Ive done my part. Now, within my body, my muscle fibers begin to grow and build back up to make me stronger. I work out, and my body works within, two different kinds of work. Both are essential. If I do my part, my body is going to do its part. So it is in spirituality, in discipleship. As we engage in all the things were doing right now-were memorizing Scripture; were reading the Word or reading a book thats Scripture-based; were going to small groups; were attending weekend services; were reading the book and discussing the sermons and all were learning; what happens is when we do that and put those things into practice, the Holy Spirit then starts to produce Christ in us. Sometimes changes arent seen right away. Ive been doing this for 20 days, and I still sin… Were never going to get there, folks, but Im telling you if youll apply yourself over these 40 days, youre going to see change. Whats more, youre going to form new habits that are going to carry on for the rest of your life-long after this time of ministry is done. This passage talked about Gods sovereignty. I want to talk about another passage that talks about His sovereignty in the Book of Romans 8, if youd turn there (page 1119 of pew Bibles). This is a verse many of us are familiar with. Gods purpose is that we be conformed unto His Son. Thats a process-not an event or program; it is a partnership of us working in conjunction with the Lord in our lives. We do our part, and the Lord does His part. In Romans 8, it says God has a plan. There is a plan in His sovereignty to form Christ in us. Romans 8:28 says, And we know that in all things… Notice it doesnt say in some things or in most things-in all things. …God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to… their purpose? Whose purpose? …His purpose. Is it about you? Its not about you. Its about Him. Called according to His purpose. Does it say all things are good? No. It doesnt say all things are good. If something is evil and is bad, its evil and bad. It will always be evil and bad. Sickness-bad; death-bad; somebody steals from you-bad. If you go through a divorce-bad. Bad! If you get injured and break a bone-bad. What it says is that God will work through that situation and turn it into something good in your life to transform you more into the image of His Son. When our car breaks down, we go to a mechanic. We say, My window isnt working anymore. Can you fix it? My air conditioning isnt working anymore. Can you fix it? My muffler is loud. Can you fix it? The mechanic makes your car run the way it used to. It makes the window function. He makes the exhaust system quiet. He makes it start when it doesnt start. He fixes it so it performs the way it did before. You break something; if something goes wrong inside, you go to the doctor. He fixes it so it can perform at or close to the level it used to. He repairs it. We thank God for doctors. We thank God for mechanics, but God does something better. God does something eternal. God says, I will use those things in your life-those things that have been taken from you, those things that have been broken, those hurts and losses-and I will make you better than you were before. Thats what He promises to do. I will use them and weave them into your life better than you were before, more like Christ than you were before. Sometimes thats a hard pill to swallow. Years ago, I would say over 10 years ago, I was-and this is the truth-30 pounds lighter than I am now. Im not heavy; Im not skinny either, but Im not heavy. I was 30 pounds lighter. I was in the best shape of my life. I was playing basketball at a pretty high level. One day I got hurt. I came down on my knee; I got catapulted in the air and came down directly [on my knee] on the gym floor. I put the patella into the femur so hard, it shattered my cartilage. The doctor said it looked like Id been in a car accident. When he got in there, he said, No more sports for you. You can ride a bike. You can play golf; you can swim, but you will never be able to play basketball, volleyball, football, baseball-anything with running or jumping is done for you for the rest of your life. I said, What if I dont play as hard, as long, or as often. He laughed and said, Thats the anesthetic talking, Mr. Williams. Your athletic career is over. You have no cartilage. He drilled holes in my bone, and for four months, I laid on my back. The only time I would get up was Sunday morning to give my one sermon [while I] was sitting down in a chair with my leg up and elevated. Then Id go back to my couch for the rest of the week while that blood clot formed. I began focusing on my pain and my problem, and I was miserable. I was angry. I said, God, how can you take this away from me? This was my release. I have my friends. Its something I enjoyed doing. How could you do this to me? I was angry. Pastor Rick Warren said something in his book on Day 25. He said, When were going through problems, it is vital that you stay focused on Gods plan and not your pain or problem. Vital that you stay focused on Gods plan and not your pain or problem. I had a turning point in my recovery. I began to focus on Gods plan. I began to say, Okay, God, what are you going to teach me? If this is gone from me, Im going to accept that, but the thought of never running again bothered me, so Im going to believe you. Maybe you want to teach me some things about faith. As I looked back, I learned some tremendous things about faith and patience. I learned that faith is not a passive thing; faith is an aggressive thing. Faith goes after stuff relentlessly. I learned that. Faith is not waiting for God to part the waters. Faith is God, we need these waters parted, and You know that, so Im going in the water and Im heading out. Im expecting You to part them as I go. Thats faith. I went out there with my brace, and the doctor said, You shouldnt do it, but I know youre stubborn. Im going to give you one anyway. I went out there with my brace, and the only way I could stop myself [when I was running] was to hit a wall. Thats how Id stop myself. Id feel sharp pain, and Id fall down. Id get back up. I played 15 minutes. Two weeks later, I could play for 20 minutes. Then I could play two days a week. Then I played for nine years until I had my second surgery. My second surgery took me a year and a half to rehab. I wanted to play basketball with our church team. In December, I couldnt run from here to the wall. The games were in January. I got out there with my brace, and I said, Im staying, God. I want to play, so you have to touch me. I played all season. Now, Im back up to playing three days a week. Im not very good anymore. I recognize that I occasionally can get the ball in the basket. Im not sure how much of its age, but I know a lot of it has to do with just the cartilage issue. Im out there; Im playing; Im contributing. Im working up a sweat. Im hanging out with some of my friends again. I learn that faith is something you just press on. Its aggressive. The things I learned about patience and faith, I wouldnt trade them. God took that very difficult situation, and as soon as I turned it over to Him, guess what? He used it. He used it to make my faith stronger than it ever was before. I would not trade that experience. The fourth point we want to make has to do with the fact that when we yield to the Lord, when we yield to Him, He produces in us Christ-likeness. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 26. While were turning there, were going to listen to a song by Joy Williams called Do They See Jesus in Me? (To read the lyrics, click here: http://www.christian-lyrics.net/artist/joy-williams/track/do-they-see-jesus-in-me) Christ is formed when the person yields to the Lord. When our desire and Gods will collide, who wins? Who wins? Its the mark of maturity. The spiritual Peter Pans who dont want to grow up, they win. In a mature believers life, the Lord wins. I had a birthday party this week to go to for my great niece. Right before she got ready to eat the birthday cake, ready to sing, the ice cream was out, everything was ready to go, she got an attitude and started pouting. The next thing you know, were ready to sing, and she walks away. She leaves. Wheres Brittney? my niece says. Brittneys gone. Brittney they call. Brittney is pouting. She doesnt want to come to her party. The ice cream is melting, the candles are burning, Mom makes a call and says, Lets sing and lets eat. So we sing Happy Birthday in part to the guest that is not there, and we cut the cake and we feast. Who missed out? Brittney did. We think we win by saying no to God and not yielding to God and doing our own thing. We dont win. We lose. We missed the party; we missed the blessing. Somebody else gets to enjoy what was meant for us. Our Lord Jesus, in Matthew 26-we looked at this last week in talking about relationships and friendships-He brought Peter, James and John into His inner-circle and bared His soul. He said in Verse 38 (page 985), My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me. Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will. Can you pray that prayer? If you can pray that prayer, Christ is being formed in you because thats what He looks like. Pastor Warren said that the change discipleship comes about not by imitation, but by habitation: the Holy Spirit residing in our lives, changing us. Our responsibility when our will and Gods will collide is to yield. Can you pray that prayer? Or do you say, I dont want to drink that cup! I didnt ask for that cup! Whyd you give me that cup? Im not going to drink that cup! Or do you say, Father, if it possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will, but Your will be done because, God, I know you work all things for good. Even though I dont understand it, I trust You, and Ill drink of the cup. What is it You want to teach me? How are you going to use this to conform me to the image of Your Son? If you can pray this prayer and say, Not my will, but Your will be done, discipleship is happening in your life. Maturity [is going on]. Youre growing. Youre getting stronger. Youre becoming like Jesus. Lets pray and then well receive communion together. Father, thank You for the purpose You have for us in Discipleship, to be formed to the image of Your Son. We thank You that that is a process that Youre working in us to this day and for the rest of our lives. We thank You that it is a partnership between us and You, that its not all You, and its not all us. We work in harmony in conjunction with Your spirit. I thank You that You have a plan in Your sovereignty. You are working all things together for good in our lives according to Your purpose. Father, I thank You that as we yield to You, You will produce Christ-likeness in us. Lord, there is a lot we have to work on. We want to start right here and right now; and I pray during this communion time, Youd speak to our hearts; [if there is] anything that is non-conforming, any area where our desire and Your will are colliding, and were winning right now-we [understand] were really losing. I pray that even here, even now-this morning, the process of yielding, the decision to yield would start right here. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.